Nindo
by Blank402
Summary: Naruto's path is lined with corruption, lies, broken promises and lost hope, but he has his Nindo and that keeps him strong. [Formerly Nindo Broken]
1. Five Months!

**Authors Note:** This story takes place a few days after Naruto and company have rescued Gaara and returned from the Sand Village. And for those who don't know, _nindo_ means Ninja Way, or way of the ninja.

* * *

"No!"

"Look kid, you don't really-"

"NO!"

"Naru-"

"Look old woman," Naruto growled, standing up and leaning over the Hokage's desk, "I'm going after Sasuke, and you aren't going to stop me!"

Next to him, Sakura sighed and placed her head into her hands, she knew that this wasn't going to be pleasant.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, "Look kid, you aren't going after Sasuke anymore."

"Why not, dammit!"

"Cause I said so, now get out of here, before I throw you out."

The two of them stared at each other long and hard, neither of them relenting. This went on for longer than a minute, and Sakura quickly became afraid that her master really was going to have to throw Naruto out. Her fears were settled however, as Naruto quickly turned on his heel and stalked out the door, muttering unpleasant things the whole way.

He pushed through the doors roughly, startling the new ANBU officer in charge of guarding the Hokages door. He walked down the halls, ignoring the many people going about their jobs, and the looks they gave him. None of that mattered to him, as he was already formulating a plan in his mind. He would go to the bridge in the Grass country, whether the old woman wanted him to or not. He didn't take time to think on _why _she would forbid him from going after Sasuke, only that she had done it, and it pissed him off.

He barely noticed the tall, white haired figure leaning against the corner as he passed it.

"Hey kid, what's got your panties all in a twist?" The familiar voice interrupted his train of thought, just as he was starting to imagine himself returning home with Sasuke and rubbing it in Tsunade's face. He looked over his shoulder to see Jiraiya, self-proclaimed super pervert, and his master.

"Ero-sennin," He drawled out, "what are you doing here?"

"Hey, hey," the old man chuckled as he approached his young student, "What's with that look in your eyes? No love for your Master?"

Naruto said nothing, and just continued walking, continued planning. He knew Jiraiya was following him, he just didn't care.

"Guess Tsunade gave you the bad news, huh?" The toad hermit asked in a more serious tone.

Naruto nodded, "She didn't seem to think it was bad news."

"Heh, don't let Tsunade fool you, she's as pissed about this as you are." That got Naruto's attention, he looked up at his Sensei with a questioning face. Jiraiya continued, "Yeah, I guess she decided it was best not to tell you. You see…" He stopped and looked around at the various ninja going about their business in the Hokage's tower. "Come on, let's go this way." He grabbed his young student by the arm and dragged him into an empty, rarely used stairwell. The two of them began descending the stairs at a leisurely pace as Jiraiya continued talking. "You see, the Hokage isn't the only one in charge of this village, she has help from a council of old, wise ninjas. Their general purpose is to help the Hokage with any decision making, specifically with things that deal with war. But, they also have special powers, one of which is to veto certain decisions the Hokage makes."

"Ve…toe?" Naruto asked, scratching the back of his head.

Jiraiya sighed. "It means they can override some of her decisions."

"Oh, right… I knew that." Naruto said, nodding.

Jiraiya shook his head, but continued on. "So far, the council and Tsunade have had no problems together. In fact, since many of the people on the council used to be good friends with the Third, they supported Tsunade in every move."

"Okay, I get it, but what does that have to do with me?" Naruto asked, growing impatient as they neared the bottom of the stairs.

Jiraiya slapped him on the side of the head. "Stop interrupting your Sensei when he's speaking, fool. As I was saying, the council and Tsunade didn't have problems with each other _in the past_, but now some of them have retired or died and left an old war hawk named Danzou in the lead chair."

"Danzou?" Naruto questioned as the two of them stopped at the end of the stairs.

"Yeah, and unfortunately he's not your biggest fan."

Naruto cocked his head to the side in question, "Why not?"

Jiraiya raised his eyebrows, "Why do you think?"

Naruto sighed, "…Kyuubi?"

"Exactly. He thinks that, as the container of Kyuubi, you are to be nothing but a weapon to use in war."

Naruto's fist clenched, "What does me being a weapon have to do with rescuing Sasuke?"

Jiraiya shrugged, "I'm not sure. Probably a form of control, you want to rescue Sasuke, so he isn't going to give you what you want."

"So it wasn't grandma after all, it was all this Danzou guy?"

"Yep."

"So then all I have to do is kick his ass?"

Jiraiya shook his head, but smiled, "That's a very bad idea. Danzou has most of the council on his side now, and his own special division in ANBU. Plus, if you attacked him it would probably be used as an excuse to keep you from going on any missions at all, whether they include Sasuke or not."

Naruto remained quiet for a few minutes as the two of them stood at the base of the stairs. Jiraiya was worried, whenever Naruto was in a bad mood, he always did something irrational, like utilize his Kyuubi chakra to dangerous levels.

"Look, Naruto," Jiraiya said in a quiet tone, "Don't worry about it, just do the missions Tsunade gives you and don't bother with this Danzou stuff, it'll probably all blow over in a few months or so." He knew it wasn't true. Danzou was actually quite a big threat at the moment, but he needed to tell the kid whatever he could to keep him calm.

Naruto remained quiet with a serious look on his face. Jiraiya opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off. "Five months."

Jiraiya looked at the young blonde quizzically, "What?"

"I have five months left to rescue Sasuke from Orochimaru. Akatsuki is still after me, and now my own village is working against me. And I only have five months." Naruto gave his sensei a serious look, a look that Jiraiya wasn't used to seeing even after 2 and a half years with the kid.

"Don't worry, Naruto," The old man said, placing his hand on the blonde's head and ruffling his hair. A move that made him more mad, yet smile at the same time. "If all this crap isn't over in four months, you, me and that pink haired girl can go straight to Orochimarus place and kick the front door in, Tsunade be damned."

Naruto just nodded. Sensing that the conversation was over he turned and exited the stairwell, and left the Hokage's tower, leaving Jiraiya alone.

The old man ran a hand through his spiky hair. _That was easier than I thought. _He turned and looked back up the stairs. _Now I just have to deal with Tsunade._

!-!-!-!-!-!

Naruto finally stepped out of the Hokage's tower and into the sunny and warm streets of Konoha. Usually he loved the weather of Konoha. During his travels with Jiraiya, he had been to many different countries and villages, and out of all of them he still thought Konoha had the best weather. That didn't matter to him now. He had too much to think about, which was an unusual feeling for him. It really made his head hurt. And on top of that he was just plain mad.

All he wanted to do was fulfill his promise, yet it kept getting harder and harder. It was times like these that made him want to forget about his nindo, but then he would imagine Sakura's face when she found out that Orochimaru had taken Sasuke's body and it all became easier. He wouldn't give up and he wouldn't go back on his word. Just thinking those words relieved some of the pressure from his head and lightened his heart.

He lifted his head and some of the gloom disappeared from his face, allowing for a small foxy grin. He reached into his pocket and searched for his wallet, he pulled out the full frog and grinned even wider. Just enough to treat himself to ramen at Ichirakus, that always helped when he was in a bad mood.

And so, in a slightly less bad mood, Naruto turned down a familiar street and headed to the old ramen stand.

!-!-!-!-!-!

"That damn bastard! I can't believe he's doing this! That kid probably hates me now, and it's his fault! What's his problem anyway!-"

Jiraiya sat bored in front of Tsunade's desk as she paced around her office, ranting and raving. Usually when she was in such a mood, Jiraiya could be found cowering in a corner, but thankfully her anger wasn't directed at him. So instead of being scared, he was bored, as she continually cussed and spat and raved about Danzou.

"-He's lucky he's so old, or I would kick his ass so hard!-"

At first, Jiraiya had tried to entertain himself by watching Tsunade's breast bounce around as she paced her room, but even that got boring to the pervert after a while. Not only that, but there was always the chance that she would catch him looking, and _then _he would be scared.

"-Dammit! I just hope Sakura calms him down!-"

Oh, he had tried to tell her that Naruto didn't blame her anymore, that he didn't hate her, but she was too busy cursing Danzou's name to pay attention.

"I'm the damn Hokage! What gives him the right to undermine my position!-"

The sound of movement caught Jiraiya's attention. He turned his head to look at the fallen ANBU member at the entrance to Tsunade's office. He was obviously new to the job, as any seasoned ANBU member knew to never interrupt the Hokage while she was in one of her moods.

_Poor guy._ Jiraiya thought, wincing as the image of what had happened to him ran through his mind yet again. _He'll be lucky if he can continue to be a ninja, or even a full man._

"-I'm not kidding! I'm going to shove my foot so far up his ass-"

A sneeze outside the door interrupted her. The door opened and Shizune, the only one who could interrupt the Hokage without suffering the repercussions, poked her head in. "Excuse me, Hokage-sama, but Danzou-san is here to see you."

!-!-!-!-!-!

"Ah! Ramen really is good for you!" Naruto said, leaning back on his stool and patting his full stomach. Ayame, the ramen girl, giggled at him as she took his fourth bowl away to be washed.

"Naruto, I knew I'd find you here."

The blonde swiveled around on his stool and saw Sakura standing in the entryway. "Oh, hey Sakura-chan. Did you come to get some ramen?"

Sakura shook her head and sat down at the stool next to him. "No, I came to give you our mission statement." She said, handing out a scroll with a letter 'C' on it.

"Mission?" Naruto asked, taking the scroll and slowly opening it, waiting for an explanation.

"Yeah, Tsunade-shishou decided to give us this mission, since we can't go after … Sasuke." She finished off sadly.

Naruto looked up from the scroll and gave Sakura his most optimistic grin. "Don't worry Sakura-chan. we'll still get Sasuke back, I promise."

Sakura smiled, "Rea- Really? You're not mad, or anything?"

"Of course I'm mad, but I don't care what old lady Tsunade says, I'll do anything to keep my promise to you, and get back our friend."

The stand went quiet for a minute as Naruto looked over the scroll, Sakura said nothing, she knew she shouldn't be surprised by Naruto's optimistic attitude after all these years but she couldn't help it.

"This mission is just for the two of us? No Kakashi?" Naruto broke the silence, bringing his teammate out of her thoughts.

She nodded. "He's still recovering at the hospital, so it'll be just the two of us."

Naruto continued reading. "A small village complaining about missing cattle? How is this a 'C' rank mission? Sounds more like a 'D' to me."

"Well, we have to travel to the village, so there's a chance that we could encounter something, I guess. It doesn't really matter, if the mission is mis-ranked then that just means we get paid more for less work."

Naruto handed the scroll back to Sakura. "Well, I guess we should get going."

"Yeah, but I am kind of hungry." She paused, "You know…you did say you would buy me ramen that one time."

Naruto had to think of the time when he had actually volunteered to buy ramen for somebody else, and when it came to him, he couldn't keep the enthusiastic smile off his face, "You mean our _date_? Yeah, that did get interrupted." He quickly pulled out his wallet, hoping to buy the ramen before Sakura could change her mind. Unfortunately, the empty frog revealed that he had already spent all of his money on himself.

Sakura looked at the empty wallet, then looked up to Naruto's stricken face. "Well, I guess I'll just get something from home. Meet me at the north gate in an hour." She got up and left the stand, leaving Naruto in the same position, staring stricken at his empty wallet.


	2. Embark!

**Authors Note:** I decided to change the name and the summary. Tell me what you think.

* * *

He lay in bed, his face half-hidden by his shoddily put on mask. His scarred eye was closed, his normal eye holding the same half lidded gaze that it always did. He checked his surroundings wearily. The bleak white walls all around him, the plain white sheets of his bed.

He let out a sigh.

Boring, it was all boring. He knew his comrades were going on a mission, his…'watcher' had told him. He wished he could go with them, he had even tried to get out of his bed, but his watcher had made sure he stayed in the hospital room…forcefully.

Slowly, he pushed himself up in his bed, taking a better look at his room. He had been given a private room, but it was nothing special. Plain bed, undecorated walls, window with an outlook on Konoha's sunny streets, a bedside table with a vase of flowers, and a dresser for his clothes and other belongings in the corner.

His one open eye widened as he glanced over at the dresser. Atop of it was one of his prized possessions: a small book. A lecherous smile lit up his unseen face. _Well, might as well finish up that book while I'm stuck in this place._ He thought to himself.

There was a problem, though. The dresser with his book was across the room, and while it was a rather small room, his last attempts to walk hadn't been very successful.

He glanced over to the door. Of course, he had help, but he would be damned if he was going to risk doing _that_. He would rather die of boredom first.

Determined, he pushed off his blankets and twisted around, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He tentatively pushed himself off, testing his legs to make sure they wouldn't give out underneath him. When he was satisfied that he could stand, he slowly made his way over to the dresser, keeping an eye on the door to make sure he didn't alert his watcher.

He made it to the dresser without incident. He picked up the book and that lecherous smile was once again on his face, his one open eye thinning in mirth. He flipped the book open to his last marked page and made his way back to his bed with nose buried in it.

His return journey to his bed was as simple as his first. Unfortunately, with his nose buried in his book, he struck his toe on the side of his bed. Normally, to a ninja of his caliber, such an injury wouldn't be a bother. But he was already sore and chakra depleted, and his stubbed toe was quite a pain. He dropped his book with a dull thud, and hopped around on one foot as silently as possible. He accidentally hopped into the bedside table, knocking it over and sending his vase of flowers to the floor with a loud crash. The water on the ground caused him to slip, making him fall to the floor and land on the pieces of broken glass. He let out a small cry as the little pieces of glass got imbedded into his back.

He lay on the floor, expecting his watcher to come in at any moment to check on him. Seconds ticked by and no one came. _Hmm, maybe he's not-_

"UUUWWWWAHHHHHH! KAKASHI-KUN! DO NOT WORRY, AS THE GREAT AND BEAUTIFUL GAI IS HERE TO PROTECT YOU IN YOUR MOST VULNERABLE STATE!"

Kakashi sighed from his position on the floor, "I'm fine Gai, no reason to worry."

His 'rival' spotted him on the ground, "Oh, Kakashi, I knew I should have taken up a bedside vigil." The dark-haired jounin blurred over to his comrade quickly and picked him up and placed him in bed, ignoring his comrades protest as he drove the shards of glass deeper into his back.

"Gai, really, I'm fine." Kakashi tried to reason with the excitable jounin.

Gai shook his head, "Nonsense, Kakashi. From this point on I will never leave your side until I am sure you are 110 better." The man said, giving Kakashi a sparkly smile and a thumbs up.

Kakashi sighed, his open eye momentarily glancing at the floor to his lost book.

Unfortunately, Gai followed his look. "OHHH!" The speedy jounin said, scooping the book off the ground, "Is this what you want, Kakashi? I, your ever watchful protector, shall read this book to you."

Kakashi's eye went wide, "No Gai, that won't be necessary." His plea went unnoticed, as Gai had already begun to read in his loud, booming voice.

"_Shakaki stared lustfully into her partners eyes, 'is that a kunai in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?'"_

Kakashi let out a groan. It was going to be a long road to recovery.

!-!-!-!-!-!

Naruto leaned against the exiting gate of Konoha, the sad look still on his face as he toyed with his empty wallet. He had sat at the ramen stand with the same look on his face for ten minutes before the old man had pushed him out. With no where else to go, Naruto had gone to the gate where he was supposed to meet Sakura.

_Man, I can't believe I ruined my date with Sakura-chan…_, He groaned internally. He looked down at his ramen filled stomach with a hateful glare, _Damn you stomach, if you hadn't made me eat so much ramen, I could've had a date with Sakura-chan._

"Oi, you're not still pissed are you?"

Naruto looked up from his self hating glare to see his perverted master striding towards him. "…What do you want, Ero-sennin?"

The older man shrugged, "What? A master can't come see his student off on a mission? What's bugging you?"

Naruto sighed, "Well, I was going to go out on a date with Sakura-chan-"

The perverted man leered lecherously, "A date, eh? I guess you're planning on using those _other _lessons I gave you." The man said, suggestively waggling his eyebrows.

"N-No," Naruto said with a slight blush, scratching the back of his head, "I told you I wasn't interested in any of your perverted crap."

Jiraiya chuckled, "You say that now, kid, but one day you're going to thank me for those lessons…"

"NOT LIKELY!" Naruto snapped loudly.

A few passerby's stopped at the sudden outburst of the blonde ninja. Naruto hadn't been in the village very long, so many of Konohas citizens hadn't gotten used to having the loud Ninja around again. With a quick smile and a few strange glances, the random people went back to their lives.

"Naruto," Came Sakura's complaining voice, "Do you always have to cause so much noise?" His female comrade walked over to him, an annoyed look on her face.

"Oh, hey Sakura-chan," Naruto began, trying to forget about the discussion he had just had with his sensei, "Eh heh, sorry 'bout that."

"Whatever," she waved off his apology, "Come over here, I need to go over the mission plan with you."

Naruto followed her lead to a nearby bench with a curious look on his face. "Mission plan? I thought all we had to do was kill some wolves or protect some cows or something." Jiraiya followed his student, a vaguely interested look on his face.

Sakura took out a scroll and spread it out over the bench to reveal a map. Naruto peered at it interestedly as Sakura began to talk. "Our destination is here, the village of Kyanon," she said, pointing out a red circled dot on the map, "It's a twelve hour run north-west of here."

Naruto nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "Yes, North-west, that explains why we are meeting at the North Gate." Sakura gave him an annoyed glare. Jiraiya sighed and slapped him upside the head.

"Stop trying to sound smart, idiot."

Naruto gave Jiraiya an annoyed glare as Sakura went on explaining, "It's twelve hours, so well probably need to stop for the night and rest." Sakura pointed to a green circled dot, "If I've timed it right, we should be able to arrive at this village by nightfall, and we can spend the night in a hotel there and continue to Kyanon in the morning."

Jiraiya nodded appreciatively, "A good plan, Sakura." Sakura blushed at the experienced ninjas words. "Now, if you don't mind, I have to have a quick little chat with my student here." He gestured over to the still annoyed Naruto with his thumb.

Sakura nodded and Jiraiya dragged his student off a few feet, out of earshot of the pink haired kunoichi.

"What is it, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked, "If it's about not using _that _jutsu, then you don't have to warn me, I know already."

Jiraiya shook his head and took a quick look around them to check their surroundings. A few feet away Sakura was still looking over her map, ignoring the two males. Various ninja and average citizens of Konoha passed them without a second glance. Naruto grew concerned about the hermits actions. "Listen kid, you know that one guy I told you about?"

"Danzou?" The blonde questioned.

"Yeah, that's the one." Jiraiya confirmed, "Well, he paid Tsunade a visit earlier and…well, I think he might be up to something."

Naruto cocked his head to the side, "Like what?"

"I'm not sure, but it probably involves you and your…" He took the time to once again to check his surroundings, "…_condition."_

Naruto stared blankly for a second, trying to piece together the veiled information. "OH, you mean the Kyuubi?"

Jiraiya started, once again smacking the boy upside the head. "Idiot, you're not supposed to mention that out loud!"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "I'm not? I thought the law only forbids other people from talking about it, not me."

Jiraiya stared for a moment, "Yeah…well…just don't talk about it, you know? It's a sensitive subject for a lot of people around here."

Naruto waved him off, "Yeah, yeah. Anyways, what does this guy want with me and my," he made sure to add emphasis on the next word, "_condition."_

Jiraiya sighed, "I'm not sure, it's just something he said to me."

"What did he say?"

_!-!-!-!-!-!-!_

_Jiraiya watched with sick fascination as the vein in Tsunade's temple throbbed so hard he thought it would burst._

This guy really knows how to push Tsunade's buttons, _He thought to himself. He looked at the elderly man sitting next to him, as he conversed with the Hokage, _Then again, there just seems to be something about him that makes everyone hate him.

_The conversation between the head of the Council and Tsunade ended as the man got up and excused himself._

"_Forgive me, Hokage-sama, but I must depart." Danzou spoke, standing up with the help of his walking stick._

"_Farewell, then, Danzou-san." Tsunade grounded out, doing a poor job of hiding her frustration with the man._

_The old man made a slow shuffle to the door. Jiraiya turned to look at the frustrated Tsunade, she caught his eyes and nodded at him, he nodded back. "Well, I guess I'll get going to," He said loudly, trying to sound casual. _

_He stood up from his chair and made it to the door, easily catching up with the older ninja. In a gesture of fake respect, he decided to hold the door open for the old man._

"_Thank you, Jiraiya-kun." The older man said, a smile as fake as Jiraiya's respect on his face. The man made to walk past the white haired ninja, but stopped. "Oh I just remembered," He leaned in on Jiraiya, the fake smile melting off his face. "Keep that fox of yours in check, it wouldn't look good for the village if he went berserk… again."_

_Jiraiya stared at the man in shock. Danzou's fake smile came back and he limped out of the door and into the hallway, quickly being flanked by two ANBU. As the old man limped away without a second glance, Jiraiya looked back at Tsunade. She gave him a questioning quirk of the eyebrow. _

_!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!_

Naruto sighed in frustration, "The more I hear about this guy, the more I want to kick his ass."

Jiraiya nodded, "I agree, but that's not the point. See, the only people Kakashi told about you losing control in your last mission was Tsunade and I."

"So how did that old guy find out?"

"I don't know, and that's why I'm worried. He's obviously keeping tabs on you. I don't know how, but it warrants some caution. Be more careful from know on, you never know who could be watching or who can get their hands on supposedly concealed information."

Naruto nodded, it was rare for Jiraiya to be completely serious, even in desperate times, so he knew to listen to him.

"Okay, Ero-sennin."

The toad hermit winced at his nickname, but decided not to say anything about it. "I'll be going now, got some data to research, after all. Good luck on you mission, kid." He waved over to Sakura, "He's all yours now," He shouted to her, "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Sh-Shut up, Ero-Sennin," Naruto groused, as Sakura giggled. The old hermit walked away, giving the younger ninjas a lazy wave.

Naruto crossed his arms, _Dammit Ero-sennin, stop trying to embarrass me in front of Sakura-chan._

"Hey, Naruto!" Jiraiya called to his student. Naruto looked up and caught the pouch the pervert had thrown at him. Naruto looked at the pouch and then up to his sensei. Jiraiya just winked and continued to walk away. Naruto opened the pouch to find some money. He smiled, _Damn, it's about time he started paying me back!_

"Come on ,Naruto," Sakura called after him, "It's time we go."

Naruto followed after his female comrade. As they crossed the gate into outside of the village and took to the tress, Naruto found himself smiling. _I may have ruined my date with Sakura-chan, _He thought, _But now I get to spend at least a whole day alone with her._

!-!-!-!-!-!-!


	3. Pervert!

Thanks to the people who have reviewed or added this story to their favorites/alerts list.

* * *

A dark cave. An unknown location. A meeting of terrible intentions.

"So, you still haven't managed to catch your Jinchuuriki?"

"Tch. No, his demon powers allow him to be very fast. Perhaps it would be easier if I had a better partner."

"Heh, I've already caught my Bijuu, you're lucky I'm still helping you at all."

"Perhaps it would be best if I assigned a different team to this bijuu? This is serious business and should not be taken lightly. We only have three bijuu so far, we still have six to go."

"Sorry, we will continue on our search for him, no need to assign another team."

"Tch."

"Good."

"You know, technically we have four bijuu."

"Ah, of course Kisame, how could I forget? Well, if no one has anything else to report, lets get back to work."

"Wait. What about me, un?"

"What about you, Deidara?"

"I no longer have a partner, what am I supposed to do, un?"

"Ah, that's right. The only candidate so far is Tobi, so assuming he passes the test then he will be your new partner."

"Geez, I don't want to work with that guy, un."

"There are no others, so you have no other choice."

"There is one other choice, though, an old comrade of mine got in contact with me the other day. He recently became a missing nin, and is looking to become a member of the organization."

"Hmm, well, you would know him best, what do you think about him?"

"Of the Swordsmen Group that I was apart of, he was the weakest."

!-!-!-!-!-!

A long, dirt road snaked it's way up a hill, surrounded on either side by grass fields. Many people walked this road, carrying luggage and carts full of various items. Naruto and Sakura also walked this road. They had given up on running because Sakura had gotten tired. Naruto could have continued on, of course, but he slowed his pace to accommodate for his female friend.

At the moment they were using the walk to catch up. Naruto still hadn't had time to really talk to his friends. He had spent only a little time in the village before he got the news that Gaara had been kidnapped, and then once he got back from that, he had only a couple of days before Tsunade had sent him out on this mission with Sakura.

"So, how did you take the Chuunin exam with two-thirds of the team missing?" Naruto asked. It was a little thing that had been bothering since he had found out that Sakura had surpassed him in rank a week or so ago.

"I took it with Ino and Chouji." She replied, "Since Shikamaru had become a Chuunin, they needed someone else to take the exam with them."

"Ino?" Naruto questioned, "Don't you two hate each other?"

Sakura shrugged, "Now that we don't have Sasuke to fight over, she's not so bad."

"Right…" Naruto said uneasily, "So, was the Chuunin exam hard?"

"Yeah," Sakura nodded, "Especially since I had to work with another team for it. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio base all of their strategies off their clans special abilities, so we had to think of some new strategies together."

"So what am I going to do when the next Chuunin exam comes around? You're already a Chuunin and, well, Sasuke…"

Sakura thought for a moment, "I guess you would have to take it with one of the gennin teams who have lost a member."

"That sounds annoying." Naruto sighed.

"Yeah, it sucks for you. Hopefully you get a good team. You should've seen Ino when Choujii and I got our promotions. She had to join Lee and TenTen to take the exam. She was totally outclassed by the two of them." She giggled.

The two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence, still making their way up the hill at a casual pace.

"What did you do over the two and a half years, Naruto?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shrugged and scratched the back of his head, "Uh, I trained. A lot." Sakura gave him a questioning raise of the eyebrow. "I also traveled."

"To where?" She asked interestedly.

"Lots of places. I can't really remember. I spent most of my time training." Naruto continued lamely. Sakura looked disappointed in his lack of explanation, but didn't voice her thoughts. The two continued up the hill and finally reached the top. The top of the hill overlooked the city they were planning on staying in for the night .It was large. Hotels, gambling houses, and brothels were everywhere, bathed in bright light from signs advertising their business. People from all over walked through the streets. The sight was familiar to Naruto, even though he had never been to the city before.

"I've been to lots of places like this before." Naruto spoke as he and Sakura began their descent into the city. "Ero-Sennin likes to come to these types of places, probably because of all the brothels."

Sakura blushed slightly, "You've never been to a brothel, have you Naruto?"

Naruto roughly shook his head. "Nope. Ero-Sennin tried to get me into one of them, but I told him I didn't want any of his perverted crap."

"That's good." Sakura said, sounding relieved, "I hate perverted old men."

"Me too." Naruto agreed with a smile.

Sakura gave him a squinty eyed look. "Naruto, you _are _a pervert." She stated with an edge to her voice.

Naruto looked offended, "Nuh uh!"

Sakura leveled him with a glare and any of thoughts of defending himself disappeared from his mind, "Then why do you make perverted ninjutsu?" She growled out.

"Um, to use against perverted old guys." Naruto said uncertainly, scratching the back of his head. Sakura continued to eye him warily. "It's true Sakura-chan. I would never do anything perverted to you."

"Good," She said, not relinquishing her gaze, "because if you ever do, I'll pound you."

Naruto stopped walking and gulped. _Why does Sakura-chan have to be so scary? _He thought to himself, _She's probably been hanging around that old lady too much._ Memories of frequent face punches flashed through his mind. _Actually, she's always been kind of scary._

"Come on, Naruto." Sakura called to him, all hostility melted off her face, "We have to get a hotel room before they're all full."

!-!-!-!-!-!

"Yosh, we hit the jackpot!" Sakura squealed in delight. "It took us nearly an hour, but we finally found a vacant hotel."

Naruto nodded, "I thought we were going to have sleep in the streets."

Sakura giggled as she dropped her bags on the floor and walked into the room. It was small, the only furniture being the bed against the wall and the bedside table. There was a door in the wall that most likely led to a bathroom. "It's not much," Sakura said, "But it _is _better than camping out. Plus it has a hot spring."

Naruto watched as Sakura explored the room. Truthfully, he didn't mind camping out. He had done it a few times while he was with Jiraiya and thought it could be fun, but Sakura had been set on getting a hotel room. She had drug him all over the city, asking everywhere if they had any kind of vacancies. He remembered times when Ero-Sennin had managed to get them into a nice hotel with no problem. It was one of the skills he had, probably from living on the road so much.

He exited her room and went across the hall to his. Just like Sakura's it was nothing special, a bed pushed up against the wall, a window looking out into the streets, a bathroom, and a small closet. He took off his pack and threw it onto the bed, then he walked out of his room and into the hallway, Sakura had closed the door to her room.

The hotel they had gotten into was nothing special, but there was one thing Naruto really liked about it: Hot Springs. "Hey, Sakura-chan," He called out. He wasn't really sure of himself, what he was attempting was tricky, "Ho-How about we go down to the hot springs? Ero-sennin always said that they are the best way to relax before a mission."

The sounds from Sakura's room stopped, as she took the time to consider Naruto's offer. Naruto anxiously waited in the hallway. "Okay," She called out, "Just give me a minute."

Naruto began jumping up and down, pumping his fist in the air. _YOSH! _He cheered in his mind, _Operation: Get Sakura into the Hot Springs, Phase One; complete!_

Sakura opened her door and stepped out of her room to see Naruto with a goofy grin on his face, holding up a peace sign. "Uh, Naruto, what are you doing?"

Naruto quickly put down his hand and dropped his smile, trying to go to looking as casual as possible. "Nothing, nothing." He said, she seemed to buy his story, so he continued, "Are you ready to go?"

She nodded. The two of them exited the room and made the trip downstairs to the hot springs area. As they neared their destination, Naruto couldn't keep the smile off his face. _Hot Spring, Hot Spring, HOT SPRINGS! WITH SAKURA-CHAN!_

"Naruto…"

_HOT SPRINGS!_

"Naruto."

_WITH SAKURA-CHAN!_

"Naruto!" He felt the familiar sensation of a small fist painfully colliding with his head.

"Ah!" He shouted, holding his bruised cranium, "What is it, Sakura-chan?" He asked, wondering what he had done wrong this time.

"This is the way to the women's hot spring," She said, pointing to a sign clearly labeled with an arrow and the word 'Women'. "The men's is over there." She continued, pointing down the opposite hallway.

"Oh right…"

!-!-!-!-!-!

_Man, this sucks._ Naruto groused to himself as he sat nearly submerged in the hot springs water surrounded by all the other men. _At least if Kakashi-sensei were here I would have someone to talk to._

Naruto glanced around at his surroundings. The steam from the water mostly obscured his view of all the other men, and for that he was glad. He wasn't really too keen on seeing another mans junk. _Well, it could be worse, at least there isn't a gay guy next to me commenting on my penis. _The thought of the worst case scenario made Naruto shudder, _Yeah, that would really suck._

He sighed and looked at the wall that divided the women's spring from the men's. A smile lit up his face. _Heh, it would be so easy, she wouldn't even know I was there._ Naruto quickly made up a plan in his mind, his prankster mind guaranteed him that he wouldn't get caught. But, Naruto's smile faded, _But I promised Sakura-chan that I wouldn't be perverted around her._

He sighed. He knew he could do it and get away with it, but he knew he shouldn't. _Damn it, being older and more mature sucks._

He got out of the water and made his way to the changing area. He changed back into his clothes and made his way back out into the hallway, slightly depressed. As he began to go back to his hotel room he noticed a small figure sneaking down the hallway opposite of him. The one that was labeled for women. _Hey, that pervert is going to go spy on the women, on Sakura-chan._

"Hey, open pervert, what do you think you're doing?" The kid stopped and turned around at Naruto's shout. "Yeah, I'm talking to you." The kid seemed frozen. He shifted his eyes left to right, looking about the empty hallway for some means of escape. He only had one option. "HEY! Get back here!" Naruto shouted as the pervert kid ran down the hallway towards the women's bath. _I'll be damned if I let him spy on Sakura-chan. _

He chased after the kid, shouting the whole way. He chased him down the corridor, where a few women exiting the baths jumped out of their way, he chased him into the changing room, where half naked women shouted at the both of them, and then he chased him into the spring, where fully naked women screamed. The two of them made a few laps around the spring before the young pervert realized where he was. He stopped and gazed at all the naked women around.

"W-Wo-WOW!" He stuttered out, his jaw slack and his eyes wide as he eyed the women who were desperately trying to find something to cover themselves up with. The kid continued to stare as blood leaked out of his nose. His vision was quickly interrupted as Naruto blurred in front of him.

"Damn kid," Naruto said, "You're kind of fast." The kid didn't respond. He stared blankly at Naruto's chest. It was almost like he was trying to look through him. "Damn kid, what's-" Naruto stopped. A terrible feeling overwhelmed him. _I've had this feeling before, _Naruto thought, bringing up bad memories, _It's a terrible killing intent._ He slowly looked behind him to see several females in states of distress. _I was so busy trying to chase the kid down I didn't notice we ran right into the Women's spring area. _All the women gave him glares, but the strongest of all was the one coming from a female who was submerged up to her nose in the water, protecting her body from sight with the steamy water.

She was identifiable by her pink hair, and her green eyes which held a look that told Naruto he was about to get pounded.

!-!-!-!-!-!

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called as he limped behind her, "I said I'm sorry, can you heal my injuries now?" The kunoichi ignored him as she crossed the threshold of the bright and busy city. "C'mon, it's not my fault we got kicked out of that hotel. I was trying to stop that kid from peeking, they should have rewarded me." She continued to ignore him as she walked off the road and into a grass field.

Naruto groaned as he followed her through the field. She eventually stopped and dropped her pack on the ground. She began rummaging through it as Naruto took a seat on the ground, careful fully holding his ribs and gingerly stretching out his broken leg. Sakura pulled out a scroll and activated it, causing a camping tent to appear in a puff of smoke. She climbed inside the tent without a word.

"So, I guess I'll just sleep out here alone and injured." Naruto called after her.

He got no response.

!-!-!-!-!-!

Sakura slowly blinked her eyes open the next morning. She had had trouble getting to sleep the night before because she had started to feel bad for Naruto. Of course, those feelings of regret went away once her inner personality argued rather loudly that Naruto deserved it. Now that she had slept off most of her anger her regret had come back. She got up and made sure everything was in order before unzipping the tent and poking her head out, her eyes were greeted by the gray of an early morning and Naruto was nowhere to be found.

She fully came out of the tent, searching for her teammate with just a bit of worry in her eyes. She didn't see him, but it was the smell that lead her to him. She caught a scent of cooked fish, which lead her to Naruto, about twenty feet behind her tent, roasting fish with sticks and an open fire. She approached him and noticed that his injuries no longer seemed to be bothering him.

At her approach, he looked up and gave her a small grin. "Morning, Sakura-chan," He greeted. He then offered her a cooked fish skewed on a stick. She accepted it and sat down across from him. "Did you catch these?" She asked.

He shook his head, still grinning, "Nope, I was going to catch some fish, but then I realized there wasn't a spring nearby, so I just went into town and bought some frozen ones and cooked them out here."

Sakura nodded, "Thanks," She said

Naruto's grinned widened, "You're welcome. I figured this would be a nice way to say I'm sorry for getting us kicked out of the hotel."

Sakura chewed on her fish and eyed Naruto appraisingly, "Yeah, I guess this is a start."

"A start?" Naruto cackled, "This fish cost lots of money, AND I took the time to cook it. Plus, I took your beating last night."

"Well, you did almost see me naked," She shrugged, "That doesn't come cheap."

_Gah, Why do I have the feeling that I'll never be done paying for this? _Naruto picked up his fried fish and began munching on it, a sour look on his face as he contemplated just how much he truly would have to 'pay' for what he had done the night before. _Damn perverted kid._

The two ninja ate their food in silence. Once they were finsihed the silence continued, until Naruto broke it, "It's different, isn't it?" He asked out of the blue, thoroughly confusing Sakura.

"What? What's different?" She asked.

Naruto's face remained passive as he stared into the dying flames, "This mission," He continued, "It's different. Just the two of us. No Kakashi, no ero-sennin, no old lady. Just us."

Sakura nodded slowly, "Yeah, it is really different. I don't think I've ever been on a mission outside the village without Tsunade-shishou, Kakashi, or Shizune."

"If one of them had been here, we probably wouldn't have had as much trouble finding a hotel. The hotel managers always seem to respect Ero-sennin, and always give him a good room." Naruto commented.

"And I probably wouldn't have beaten you so badly if someone had been there to stop me," She said in an apologetic tone.

"Don't worry about it, you know I heal fast." Naruto said. He stood up and offered her his hand with a foxy smile. "The first part of our solo mission hasn't been that great, so lets go to that village and be the best damn cattle finders ever."

Sakura smiled and accepted his hand, allowing him to pull her off the ground, "Yeah," She agreed, "From her on out, we will be taking this mission seriously, even if it is just a 'C' class."

Together, the two of them stomped out the fire and put up their minimal camping equipment. Then, they set off for the village of Kyanon, to complete their mission.


	4. Underneath the Underneath!

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who reviewed, or put this story on thier alerts/favorites. Sorry if there are any formatting problems in this chapter, I had some problems with the document manager.

* * *

The village of Kyanon wasn't very impressive. It was obviously a farming village, animals could be found everywhere. Grazing in a field, squawking behind a fence, walking the streets as if they were people. The houses were mainly small, with a couple of large farms and barns thrown in. Most of the activity in the village could be found on the market street. Here various venders tried to sale their goods to whoever walked past. It was on this street that Sakura and Naruto found themselves. 

"So…What exactly are we supposed to do again?" Naruto asked, watching as a pig ran by chased by a screaming woman.

"We should find the leader of the village, he was the one who sent in the request for the mission." Sakura responded, she cast her gaze up and down the street, at all the various venders. _There's something wrong here_, Sakura thought to herself. She looked over to Naruto to see if he noticed anything, but his concentration was still focused on the chase between the woman and the pig. She went back to investigating the streets. _Damn it, there's something wrong here, but I can't put my finger on it._

"Hmm," Naruto hummed, "No one's trying to sell us anything."

"What?" Sakura questioned, breaking out of her thoughts.

"No one's trying to sell us anything," Naruto repeated, "It's strange, usually merchants swamp all over ninja, because they know we have money. But these guys aren't bothering us."

Sakura looked up and down the market street again. _He's right_, she thought to herself, _None of them are trying to sell us anything, some of them even seem to be totally avoiding us_. "Strange," she whispered.

Naruto shrugged, "Whatever, you should be glad. One time with Ero-sennin, I had this one guy try and sell me these really cheap kunai, they were made out of wood or something. He said they would never miss. He was totally lying."

Sakura eyed the merchants on the street before shaking her head, "Whatever, it doesn't matter, lets just get this done."

"Right," Naruto nodded, "So, where is the leader of the village?"

Sakura looked around, then looked back at him. "Um, I don't know."

Naruto stopped in the middle of street and placed his hand on his chin in thought. Sakura watched for a minute with a raised eyebrow before he jumped on top of the nearest building, eliciting a few shocked looks from the villagers, Sakura just shook her head, _I don't think there's a way for him to do something without attracting everyone's attention._

Naruto pointed in the direction opposite of the way they had just been going, "That should be the village leaders house!" He shouted down to her. Sakura opened her mouth to shout back, but decided it would be better to just join him. So, she too jumped onto the building and looked in the direction Naruto was pointing.

"How can you tell that's it?" she questioned.

"It's one of the biggest buildings in the village."

Sakura used her high vantage point to scope out the rest of the village and realized he was right, besides a few of the larger farmhouses, the indicated building was one of the largest. "Let's go then." She said. Naruto nodded and the two of them jumped down and headed in the buildings direction.

!-!-!-!-!-!

Sakura crossed the threshold of the building first with Naruto in tow. They hadn't knocked, assuming it to be a public building, what they found, however, was an average dwelling, sounds coming from the back of the house.

"Um, Hello?" Sakura called out.

Her call was answered as the sound in the back stopped and a woman walked into the living area. At first her face seemed friendly and welcoming, but as soon as she laid eyes upon them, she looked at them reproachfully.

"C-Can I he-help you?" She asked warily.

"Yeah, we're looking for the head of this village." Sakura answered, ignoring the woman's strange behavior.

The woman seemed to become more wary of their presence, "Um, h-he's upstairs."

Sakura inclined her head to the woman in thanks, "Thank you." Naruto raised an eyebrow at the woman's behavior. He looked toward Sakura, who shook her head at him. With a shrug, Naruto kept quiet.

The two of them made their way up the stairs. Unlike the first story, the second story was more business like, containing a desk and a couple of filing cabinets. A man sat behind the desk. He had graying black hair and a pair of glasses perched on his face, at the moment of their arrival he was hunched over his desk.

Sakura cleared her throat, "Excuse me, sir." She said professionally. The man looked up.

"Are you the ninja from Konoha?" He asked, a wary tone to his voice similar to the one of the woman downstairs.

"Yes, sir, we are. We've come to take care of the missing cattle you told us about." Sakura answered him.

Immediately, the man seemed more relieved. "Please, come take a seat." He offered to the two of them. Both ninja sat down in front of the desk. "My name is Shutaru Shichou. I'm the leader of this small, humble village."

"Now, Shutaru-san, can-" Sakura began.

"Please, call me Shichi." The old man requested with a grin, "It's what my friends call me."

Both ninja eyed the man strangely. _He's being strangely friendly all of a sudden,_ Naruto thought.

"Okay…Shichi," Sakura continued, "Can you tell us the situation?"

"Of course," Shichou said, "It's not that complicated. A couple of weeks ago, these wolves moved in-"

"Hah! I was right! It is wolves!" Naruto crowed.

Shichou eyed the blond strangely, and Sakura glared at him, her eyebrow twitching, "Naruto, shut up!" She whispered forcefully.

Naruto quickly wiped the grin from his face at Sakura's look. Shichou cleared his throat, "As I was saying. These two wolves showed up and started attacking our cattle. These were a couple of _special wolves_." Naruto raised his brow at the way the man spoke, specifically his emphasis on the words 'special wolves'. _Damn, this town is weird._ He thought to himself. He glanced at Sakura and could tell she was thinking the same thing he was, she was just professional enough to hide it.

"Special? How do you mean?" She questioned.

"They're both really smart, and they come from the _East_." Once again Naruto noted the strange emphasis on the words. It was then that he noticed something else. The man seemed to have some kind of nervous tick, as he constantly tapped his fingers on the desk. _Really, really weird._ He once again thought to himself.

"There's only two of them?" Sakura inquired.

The man nodded, "That I know of, _more_ might be coming though." There was that damn emphasis again. It was really starting to piss Naruto off.

"Where were they last seen?" Sakura asked yet another question.

The man shrugged, "I'm not sure of their exact location, but they've been sighted around the south edge of the forest that surrounds this village, it would be best if you start your search there."

Sakura nodded, "Okay, Shu-…Shichi, we'll get the job done, and get back to you later."

The old man nodded, looking very happy, "Thank you. Thank you very much."

Naruto and Sakura nodded to the man and left, going down the stairs and passing that woman. As they exited the house, the woman ran up the stairs to talk to Shichou.

!-!-!-!-!

"Was that them, Shichi-kun?" The woman asked her husband anxiously as the unknown ninja left.

"No, dear wife, those were our saviors." He replied with an easy smile.

"So that was _them_?" She asked in clarification, "Did you tell them the problem?"

Shichou shook his head, "No, I couldn't risk saying it out loud, but I think they got my clues."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded, "Yes, the ninja of Konoha are very intelligent, especially that quiet, blond one."

!-!-!-!-!-!

"MAN, that guy was weird!" Naruto complained loudly as he and Sakura walked the streets towards the edge of the forest.

Sakura nodded, "He was definitely acting kind of weird." Quietly, the two of them continued walking toward the edge of the village, having no idea that they were being watched.

Atop a house further down the street behind them stood two shadowy figures.

"Hmph, looks like Shichi-kun brought in some ninja to stop us." The shorter one remarked as he watched Naruto and Sakura exit the village and head into the forest.

"Yeah, what a dumb ass, remind me to kill him later." The tall one remarked.

"Okay, but right now I think we've got bigger fish to fry." The short one replied.

The big one cocked his head to the side, "What?"

"That kid, the loud blond one. He's the one Akatsuki's after."

"Is that really him? The Kyuubi brat?"

"Yeah," the short one replied, his voice becoming more excited, "If I catch him, I'll definitely be allowed into the organization."

"So we're going after him?"

"_I'll_ go after him. You take care of the girl."

"Aye."

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto and Sakura stood at the edge of the forest. They both knew what had to be done, but neither knew where to start. Neither of them were expert trackers, and what tracking skills they did have were to track down ninja, not wolves.

"This mission is better suited for Kiba's team, not us." Sakura remarked. Naruto nodded in agreement, "Well," She continued, "I guess we should split up. We've got a lot of ground to cover, splitting up will make it easier."

Naruto nodded again, "Uh, I'll go this way," He said, pointing to the left, "and you can go that way."

Sakura shrugged, "Okay, see you later," She said, then took off into the forest.

Naruto watched her leave before going off into his section of the forest.

!-!-!-!-!

Sakura was annoyed. No, she was more than annoyed, she was pissed. She had already spent over an hour in the forest, jumping from tree to tree, looking for any sign of those wolves. She hadn't seen a thing. Nothing. No prints, no shed fur, no marks of any kind.

_I know I'm not supposed to question her judgement,_ Sakura thought to herself, _But what the hell was Tsunade-shishou thinking? This mission is obviously better suited for Kiba's team. With Hinata's eyes, Kiba's nose, and Shino's…bugs, they could have finished this mission no problem._

But, even as Sakura thought that, she knew exactly what Tsunade had been thinking. She had been trying to get Naruto out of the village and keep him occupied with something that wasn't Sasuke. Sakura sighed, Shizune had explained things to her about how the Council was limiting Naruto's actions because of the Kyuubi. It truly sickened her, that her own village would treat one of it's own ninja like that.

Sakura was brought out of her thoughts as she realized that she was running out of trees to run on as she neared a clearing with a small lake. She hopped out of the trees and walked over to the shores of the lake. _Wolves have to drink, right? Maybe I can find some trace of them somewhere around here_. She began intensly searching around the edge of the lake, looking for prints or anything that would lead her to the wolves.

"On a wild goose chase, eh?" A voice spoke out of nowhere, immediately putting Sakura on guard. She put a hand on her weapons pouch and sunk into a loose fighting stance. "Or should I say a _wild wolf_ chase?"

She turned her attention to the nearby trees where she saw a tall man perched on a branch. He wore a standard ninja outfit, a dark brown flak jacket with no scroll pouches, there was a long sleeved shirt underneath. His forehead protector rested on his head, bearing the symbol of the Hidden Mist.

"Who are you," Sakura demanded defensively.

The man smirked. His face was pale, and his head was topped with thin brown hair, "I am Mizukaku Urufu, and I'm here to capture the damsel."

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto walked through the forest, his face reflecting utter boredom. It had been over an hour with no sign of wolves. It would have been easier for him if he had any experience in tracking at all. He was sure there had been a few lessons on it in the academy, but that was probably when he was sleeping, or trying to write love letters to Sakura-chan.

"HEY!" Naruto shouted into the forest, "ANY DAMN WOLVES OUT THERE BETTER COME OUT, I'M GETTING TIRED OF LOOKING FOR YOU!" Naruto stood still in the middle of the forest, his own voice echoing around him. "Damn it," Naruto grumbled, "I should have known that wouldn't have worked. Stupid ass wolves…"

Naruto would have continued grumbling on, but a sudden movement caught his attention. He quickly ducked as a sword cut the air were his head was. Before he could focus his attention on the first enemy, another appeared right in front of him, bringing down a sword in a large slash. He rolled out of the way, pushing himself up on all fours and flipping through the air.

He landed a few feet away from his two identical attackers, sliding on the ground. _Bunshin, eh?_

He didn't have more time to thinks as more Bunshin fell around him, each of them going after him with a large sword. This time Naruto was ready, though, a quick seal and a puff of smoke and there were five Kage Bunshin to match the attacking five Bunshin. Each Naruto clone blocked a sword strike with a kunai.

The real Naruto stood surrounded in a circle by stationary Bunshin, scanning them all for the real one or for the next attack.

"Well, well, quite a good reaction speed you've got there." The original attacker spoke out, Naruto focused his vision on the talking person, but kept the rest of his sense open and alert just incase he was still looking at a Bunshin, "But I was going easy on you."

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto growled.

"Heh, I'm surprised you don't know, kid," He said. He threw out his arms to either side of him in a dramatic pose, "I'm Sumiyaka Akuma, Demon of the Hidden Mist."

Naruto looked at the man in front of him appraisingly. He was barely taller than he was, wearing a black tank top, and baggy black pants. On each of his forearms he wore a stripped band. He had no hair on his head, and his forehead protector was no where insight. In his left hand he carried a katana sword almost as large as he was.

"Demon of the Mist, eh?" Naruto questioned, "I thought that was Zabuza."

Akuma coughed slightly, "Oh, so you've, eh, heard of him, have you?" He asked uneasily.

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle, "You're nothing but a poser." He cackled.

"Shut up, kid!" Akuma demanded, "I'm going to kill you right now, then I'll turn your head in to Akatsuki and then they'll have to let me join."

Whatever mirth Naruto had just felt disappeared at the mention of Akatsuki, "Akatsuki, eh?" He questioned, his eyes tinting red.

"Heh, that got your attention, didn't it, kid?" Akuma mocked. He waved his hands and the clones around the area fell apart into water. Naruto also dismissed his clones. He stood facing the bald man with a dangerous look on his face.

"You're going to tell me everything you know about Akatsuki," Naruto growled, "And if you don't, I'll beat it out of you."

"Well then," Akuma said, pulling his sword into a fighting stance with a cocky grin, "Better get started on that beating."

!-!-!-!-!

Sakura leaped backwards, dodging a wave of shuriken from Urufu. She landed on the lake water, unconsciously circulating chakra through her feet so she could stand on it's surface.

She swung her arm, unleashing the kunai she held in her enemies direction, but it was easily dodged. He jumped from his place in the trees, rushing to her with his fist raised.

It was at this time that Sakura slipped her gloves on with a smirk. _Hand-to-Hand combat? He doesn't know what he's in for._

He arrived at her location, and immediately she swung at him with a heavy right. He dodged the punch with a duck, swinging his leg out to knock her off her feet. She answered with a jump, bringing one of her legs up high and bringing it back down in a kick.

Urufu rolled out of the way just in time as Sakura's kick connected with the water, causing a geyser to spray up.

_Hmm, maybe the damsel has some strength to her,_ Ururfu thought, eyeing the large spout of water.

"Impressive," The tall man remarked. Sakura turned her attention to him, hunching down into her fighting position with her fist raised. "I was hoping this would be an easy fight. I was planning to use you as leverage against that blond kid."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, "What do you want with Naruto?" She questioned, a dangerous edge to her voice.

The mist ninja shrugged, "I don't really give a shit about him, but my companion has his heart set on joining that organization, and since I owe him one, I figured I'd help him out by capturing you." He sighed, "But it looks like you're not as weak as I thought you were, how annoying."

"Akatsuki?" Sakura asked, flexing her fists.

"Ah yeah, that's the one. You've heard of them, guess they aren't as secret as they say they are."

Sakura's response was to charge at him with her fist raised. She attacked with a strong uppercut that he dodged with a back flip. She continued on, delivering punch after punch, all of which were dodged.

"You're strong," He remarked as he dodged another punch, "But much too slow."

"SHUT UP DAMN IT!" She shouted, delivering another right punch. Urufu dodged to the left, but Sakura cut her punch short and delivered and hard kick to his ribs. He stumbled to the right, surprised. Sakura didn't stop, she pulled back her right fist and delivered an uppercut right to his chest that sent him into the air.

_Damn,_ Urufu thought as he flailed through the air spitting up blood, _she really is strong._

Sakura watched him, waiting for him to come back to the ground. But, in a physics defying move only possible to a ninja, Urufu righted himself in midair and began forming seals.

"_SUITON: SURIYUUDAN NO JUTSU!_" He shouted. The water underneath him bubbled, and rose up forming a water dragon. Once it was fully formed, the dragon pointed in Sakura's direction and flew at her.

_I've seen this before!_ Sakura thought, _It's not as strong as Zabuza's, but it's still dangerous._

Sakura quickly formed seals. "_KATON: GOKAKYUU NO JUTSU!"_ She put her hand to her mouth, and blew out a large fireball that met the water dragon head on. The two techniques collided, canceling each other out and causing a cloud of steam to develop.

_Damn it_, Sakura cursed to herself, _his attack is stronger than mine! I can't keep this up!_ She quickly cut off her technique, allowing what was left of the water dragon to come crashing down on her. She ran forward as fast as possible, as the dragon flew over her head and crashed into the water behind her.

She stumbled a bit as the waves the attack caused threw her off her balance. She looked up into the air, faintly seeing Urufus still falling figure. She ran and jumped through the steam, meeting him a few feet above the water. She doubled up her fist above her head and brought them down on top of his head, sending him crashing to the water a few feet below.

She fell back to the water, watching as he tried to push himself onto his feet, "Nice one," He grounded out, "Countering my jutsu with a fire ball, then using the steam as a cover to sneak up on me while I was vulnerable in mid-air. Very good, damsel, but not good enough."

Sakura cursed as he dissipated into water. As she sensed his real presence behind her, she swung around with a back kick that he caught. He used her leg to swing her over his head and slam her into the water. Then, he formed seals and slammed his palm into the water. "_SUITON: MIZU MAISOU NO JUTSU_!"

Tentacles of water snaked out of the water and wrapped around Sakura, pulling her into the lake as she struggled to get loose. She was drug further and further down into the lake, looking up through the water at Urufu's smirking face.

_Damn it! I can't die here._ She struggled harder, but the water tentacles stayed tight. _DAMN IT!_ She snapped her right arm loose. She stared at her free arm in surprise. Then she smirked. She pulled it back and punched the water, causing a spurt of water to erupt on the surface, surprising Urufu enough to lose concentration on the jutsu, freeing her. She quickly swam to the surface, and grabbed his ankle through the water before he could jump away. She formed a one handed seal under the water and mouthed: "_KOKUANGYOU NO JUTSU!"_

Urufu's entire world became darkness as Sakura's genjutsu went into effect.

Sakura pulled herself out of the water and stood on it's surface. She watched as Urufu stumbled about in his own personal darkness, she smirked as she formed a simple seal and whispered, "_Bunshin no jutsu_!". Her Bunshin popped into existence and she directed it to run a wide arc around Urufu as loudly as possible. The man took the Bunshin as the real her and turned his attention to the direction it's noise was coming from. While he wasn't paying attention, Sakura calmly and quietly walked next to him, punching him directly in the head, sending him skidding across the water's surface and into unconsciousness.

She walked up to his slowly sinking body and pulled him up to prevent him from drowning.

"Don't underestimate me, damn it!"

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto charged with a kunai drawn. He jumped in the air, and brought it down in a downward slash, but was surprised when he realized he was only cutting through the air.

He felt his enemies presence behind him.

"I may not be _the_ demon of the Hidden Mist," Akuma commented, "But I _am_ the Mist Village's official Speed Demon."

Naruto looked over his shoulder to see the bald man raising his sword, he made a dash forward to avoid the attack, but it came too fast. The sword spilt through his clothes and made a cut in his back. Naruto stumbled to the ground, hissing in pain.

"Heh, You'll have to be much faster than that." Naruto rolled over, pulling out a shuriken and tossing it at his head, but the man wasn't there anymore. He now stood in front of him, an arrogant smirk on his face. "Just face it kid, you can't keep up. Just give up and come with me." Naruto glared at him. Akuma just chuckled. "What's with that look in your eye? You look like you've got something to say."

Naruto opened his mouth, "I'm definitely going to kick your ass." He smirked and disappeared into a puff of smoke.

_Bunshin?_ Akuma questioned.

"Eat this!" Naruto shouted, jumping out of a nearby tree with a full Rasengan in his hand. He brought it down, preparing to detach Akuma's head from his shoulders, but he once again found himself hitting nothing but air.

"Damn kid, for a second there I thought you were actually about to do something smart." Akuma said, now perched up in a tree.

_Damn it,_ Naruto cursed to himself, _He's too damn fast._ He slowly pulled out a shuriken.

Akuma raised an eyebrow at the boys actions, _Shuriken? Just how stupid is he? I don't even have to try and dodge this one._

Naruto smirked as he flung the shuriken, watching it closely as it neared its stationary target. As it was within range, he quickly formed seals. "_KAGE SHURIKEN NO JUTSU!_" Akuma's eyes widened as the shuriken multiplied twenty times. He spun his sword in a large circle, blocking many of the shuriken, he couldn't get them all, however, as a few sliced him in his arms and one imbedded itself in his leg.

Naruto used this moment to his advantage, he jumped up into the tree attempting to punch Akuma out of it, but once again the swordsmen was too fast for him. He angled his sword forward so that Naruto would be impaled on it. Naruto cursed under his breath, as he had too much momentum to stop. He quickly formed a seal and summoned a kage bunshin underneath him. He used it's back as a spring board and flipped over Akuma, landing on the branch behind him.

He swept his leg behind him, trying to catch the swordsman behind his back, but Akuma was already gone.

"Alright kid," Akuma sighed from an unknown location. "This is _already_ lasting longer than it should, so I'm going to end it with this move. _Kirigakure no Jutsu!"_ Naruto cursed as mist slowly began to envelop the area. _He's already faster than I can see, this is just going to make it worse._ He jumped off the tree branch. _"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_ Eight clones popped into existence, each of them pressing close to Naruto, creating tight circle of protection. Naruto strained his eyes, looking through the mist for any sign of Akuma.

He suddenly heard a soft whooshing noise and then a pop as one of his kage bunshin was cut down. "Damn it!" He cursed, replacing the clone. He heard another whoosh followed by two more pops and smoke as more clones were taken down. He once again replaced them. _I…I can't see him,_ Naruto thought, _But, I can hear him, just barely, but I can!_

He smirked and assumed a meditative position. _Focus my chakra in my ears and amplify my hearing._

Suddenly, Naruto could hear much better than before, he could hear _everything_. It was disorientating at first, but he quickly sorted it out, ignoring all the sounds that weren't a threat.

He heard the rapid approach of feet and smiled. One of his kage bunshins pulled out a kunai and blocked the sword strike. The surprised gasp of Akuma would have been audible even without enhanced hearing. With a smile he jumped forward to deliver a punch, but only connected with air again. However, this time he heard the approach of feet again, he jumped to give a round-house kick.

The kick was dodged again, and Naruto felt a slicing pain in his side. _Damn! He still got me?_

"You're doing better kid, but you can't keep up with my speed, no mater what."

_He's right. He's too fast. There's only one way, but it's not perfect._

Naruto jumped backwards, performing a back flip and sticking vertically to a tree. He looked around through the mist, trying to find Akuma while pulling something out of his pouch. He pinpointed Akumas position and charged at him. As he got in range, he heard the slicing of air as Akuma swung the sword, he caught it in his bare hands, taking another glancing blow to the side.

"I was just starting to have hope for you, brat. And then you do something like this." Akuma commented. Naruto was now close enough to see Akuma through the mist. He kept his grip on the sword, trying to wrench it out of his grip. He struggled, placing his foot on the swordsman's abdomen and pulling with all his strength.

"Let go damn it!" He growled.

Akuma struggled to keep the sword in his grip, "Stupid kid." He twisted the sword and pulled, dragging it along Naruto's hands, causing him to let loose. The mist ninja kicked the younger ninja away with disgust. "I knew you were desperate, but that was just idiotic."

Naruto pushed himself off the ground, wiping the blood off his hands and chuckling. "This fight is over, you no haired loser. You've been marked."

"Wh-" The swordsman didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Naruto disappeared and reappeared behind him, delivering a mighty kick to the back of his head. He flew through the air and impacted against a tree. Before he fell back down and hit the ground Naruto was in front of him again, kneeing him in the stomach and then giving him a backhanded punch to the face, causing to flail through the air and land roughly on the ground.

_What is this speed?_ Akuma questioned as blood leaked out of his mouth. He peered at Naruto through the mist. _How is he faster than me? How can he see me?_ The image of Naruto multiplied through the mist. _Damn, he's coming again!_

Akuma dashed to the side, hoping to avoid whatever Naruto's next attack would be, but he suddenly found his legs up above his head as one of Naruto's clones swept his legs out from under him. The clone shouted "_U!_"

Three more clones appeared under his mid-air body, each delivering an upward kick. "_ZU!"_ "_MA!" _"_KI!"_

Akuma flew upwards, quickly finding himself face-to-face with the real Naruto, who was holding up a Rasengan. _"NARUTO RENDAN!"_ Naruto shouted as he slammed the Rasengan into his enemies gut. Akumas body twisted around the devastating ball of chakra, before he was blown back to the ground, causing a large crater.

Naruto followed his body, not having the energy to catch himself as he fell to the ground. He slowly pushed himself up, eyeing the body of Akuma for any sign of movement. _Damn, that jutsu take's a lot out me._

He jumped as Akuma coughed up blood. "Damn," He spoke gravely, "That was some beating kid. It's been a long time since I've meet someone who could match my speed."

Naruto grinned despite the situation, "Yeah," He said confidently, "You're looking at Konoha's next Yellow Flash."

"Yellow Flash, eh?" Akuma questioned, "Well, I guess you want that information about Akatsuki, huh?"

Naruto nodded, his face turning serious again. "Yeah…"

"Well-" He began, but stopped as a kunai nearly landed in Naruto's foot.

Both mist and leaf ninja turned to look at a man in an Akatsuki cloak, his face obscured by a swirl mask. "My apologies," He said to Naruto, "I was aiming for Akuma-sans throat."

Naruto assumed a fighting stance. Akuma tired to push himself up, but Naruto kicked him back down. "Stay down, No Hair." He growled. He turned his direction to the Akatsuki member. "Who the hell are you?"

"Me?" He questioned, pointing to himself, "I am the Akatsuki's newest member," He threw his arms out in a glorifying position, "TOBI!"

Naruto stared at him with an eyebrow raised. "What the hell?"

Tobi dropped his arms to his sides, "Sorry, Deidara-san told me that I needed to act cooler now that I'm in the organization."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "What ever," He growled, charging at the strange man. He punched, and found his fist going straight through Tobi. "Bunshin?" Naruto questioned out loud.

"Not exactly," Tobi answered from behind him. Naruto swung his arm around, but it just went through him again.

Naruto pushed through this Tobi, seeing another one leaning over Akuma, bloody kunai in his hand. Naruto's eye's went wide as he eyed the bloody cut stretching across Akuma's throat.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-san, but Akuma-san had to die, he knew too much." Tobi said, sounding genuinely apologetic. The cloaked man stood up, bowed, and disappeared.

Naruto stood in a slight shock for a minute. He didn't feel remorse, he knew Akuma was going to kill him. But for that Akatsuki member to come and slit another man's throat, a man who had already been thoroughly defeated, and then leave like it was nothing, it disgusted him, and scared him just a little bit. _You were a bastard, No Hair,_ Naruto thought, _But you didn't deserve to die like that._

"Naruto!" He heard Sakura yell. He looked from the dead mist Ninjas body, Sakura was running towards him, carrying a bound body on her shoulders. Naruto raised his arm and gave her a wave. He gave her a smile, but as she approached faster he found himself falling backwards. "NARUTO!"

He fell backwards and hit the ground, his world becoming darkness.

* * *

All the Jutsu used in this chapter are from the anime/manga except for one: 

Suiton: Mizu Maisou no Jutsu- Water Style: Water Burial Technique


	5. Rematch!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed or put this story on thier alearts/favorites.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THERE WERE NO WOLVES?" Naruto shouted, as he sat up in a bed.

"Um…" Shichou began uncertainly, "I thought you knew…"

"HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW? YOU TOLD ME THERE WERE WOLVES!"

Sakura groaned, "Naruto, stop being so loud."

Naruto turned to his comrade, "How the hell am I supposed to stay calm when he sent us out there to fight ninja and didn't even tell us!"

"I-I'm very sorry!" Shichou stuttered, "I thought you knew! I thought you understood my hints!"

"Hints?" Naruto questioned. He looked over to Sakura, who shrugged her shoulders, "What hints?"

"You know, when I said 'They came from the _east'. _Both of them came from the Mist Village, which is to the east. And my morse code signal."

"Morse code?" Naruto questioned.

"OH!" Sakura exclaimed, "That's why you kept tapping your fingers on the desk."

Shichou nodded, "I was trying to tap out SOS, I thought ninja such as yourself would recognize that."

Naruto just raised an eyebrow, while Sakura took on a defeated expression. _He's right, _she thought, _I should have recognized that. _"Um, Shichou-san-" Sakura began.

"Shichi," He corrected with a small smile.

Sakura nodded slowly, "Shichi, it would have been better to just come out and tell us your problem, we would have helped, even if you couldn't afford a higher ranked mission."

"Oh, I could afford a higher rank," Shichou corrected her, "I just didn't want Akuma and Urufu to find out."

"Still," Sakura continued, "Misleading mission details are a very serious offense. Naruto and I weren't prepared to go into that forest to fight high ranking ninja. We could have been killed."

Shichou looked down like a child being lectured, "Sorry Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun."

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered loudly, as he leaned over to his pink haired teammate, "can we get out of here now? I really don't like this place."

Sakura nodded, "Um, Shichi, now that Naruto's awake and healed, we will be going back to our village."

"Really?" Shichou questioned, "But, what about Urufu? What if he gets back up?"

Sakura shook her head, "I injected him with a medicine that should keep him under for three days, that should be long enough for those Mist Hunter-nin that we sent for to arrive."

"And if the Hunter-nin don't come within three days?" Shichou asked.

Sakura pulled out a small vial, "Then give him another shot of this to keep him under."

The old man nodded. He took the vial from her and stood up. "There aren't any words to express the gratitude I want to offer you for protecting my small village." He said, bowing to the two of them.

"No problem, old man," Naruto said, standing up and gathering his things. "But next time you have something to say, say it directly."

The old man chuckled, "Okay, Naruto-kun."

"Let's go, Sakura-chan," Naruto said with a motion of his head, "Let's get the hell out of here."

!-!-!-!-!

"SO IT WAS ALL A FREAKING LIE?" Tsunade bellowed, after hearing the mission report from Naruto and Sakura.

Naruto nodded strongly, "That's exactly the way I feel!"

Tsunade crossed her arms, "It really pisses me off when people exploit the system like that," She grumbled.

"Uh, Hokage-sama?" Hatake Kakashi said. He had been allowed to leave the hospital and the watchful eye of Gai to see his teammates as they returned from their mission. "I think there's more important things to worry about than the fact that they lied. Like the fact that Naruto encountered the new Akatsuki member."

Tsunade nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I was getting to that." She answered, "What did you say his name was, Naruto?"

"Ummmm," Naruto screwed his face up in thought, "I think it was…Otobo? No. … Obito?"

Kakashi raised a startled eyebrow.

"No, no, that wasn't it," Naruto continued, "I think it was…Tobi. Yeah, that's it, Tobi."

Kakashi relaxed.

"Tobi?" Tsunade questioned, she looked over to Kakashi, who shrugged. "I'm not familiar with the name. I'll have Shizune look it up later."

"What type of skills did he have, Naruto?" Kakashi asked. He was disappointed when Naruto only shrugged.

"I don't really remember." Tsunade sighed as Naruto scratched his head in thought, "I tried hitting him, but I just passed right through him."

"A bunshin?" Sakura asked, although she had been there, she hadn't seen the man Naruto had described.

Naruto shook his head, "No. I can't describe it. It just didn't…_feel_ like a bunshin."

Kakashi nodded in understanding, _Naruto _would _know what a bunshin feels like, he uses them so often._

Tsunade sighed again, "Kid, you aren't being very helpful."

"Well it's not my fault, old lady," Naruto challenged defensively, "I was really tired after that fight."

Kakashi adopted a thoughtful look in his eye, "Naruto, tell me more about your fight with Akuma, what jutsu did you use to defeat him?"

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off, "Yeah, kid, tell us what Jutsu you used." Everyone in the Hokage's office jumped as the voice came from outside the room. They all turned their attention to Jiraiya, who was perched on Tsunade's open window. Everyone looked a little surprised, while Naruto looked just a bit scared.

"Um, Hey, Ero-sennin." Naruto shakily greeted.

The tall man, jumped into the office and pulled up a chair next to Naruto. "Come on, Naruto, tell me what Jutsu you used." Naruto looked down and mumbled. "What?" Jiraiya questioned.

The three other people in the room watched the exchange between master and apprentice with curious looks on their faces.

"Hiraishin no jutsu," Naruto mumbled. He winced as Jiraiya slapped him on the back of his head.

"Damn it, kid. I told you not to use that jutsu." He said harshly.

Kakashi looked genuinely surprised, as his one eye widened.

"Hiraishin?" Sakura questioned.

_Hiraishin? _Tsunade thought to herself, _I didn't think Naruto would be capable of learning that. He just keeps on surprising me._

"Is Hiraishin _that _justsu?" Kakashi asked.

Jiraiya shook his head, "It's not _that _jutsu." He answered, "But I did tell the kid not to use it until we had more time to train it, but I knew he had used it when I heard his description of his opponent and the battle."

"But, Ero-sennin," Naruto protested, "I had no other choice, if I hadn't used it I could have died."

Jiraiya glared at him, "Just using it can kill you." He stated flatly. Everyone in the rooms eyebrows went up in surprise at that. Sakura especially seemed to have a bit of worry in her eyes.

"Well, it didn't." Naruto countered lamely.

Jiraiya sighed, leaning back in his chair, "Whatever kid, get yourself killed, see how much I care." The room went silent for a minute, "So, there's a new Akatsuki member, eh?" Jiraiya spoke out.

Naruto stood up silently, "Let them explain it to you, I've got training to do."

"Training?" Sakura questioned, "You just recovered from you injuries."

Naruto shrugged, "All the more reason to train." He said over his shoulders, as he pushed through the doors and exited the room. Sakura looked after him as he left, then looked back to Tsunade.

"Go ahead," She nodded. Sakura got up and followed after her companion.

After Sakura left, Tsunade turned to face Jiraiya, "We need to talk."

!-!-!-!-!

"Damn it!" Naruto growled to himself as he punched a training log. "Ero-sennin's right!" He punched it again. "I shouldn't have used that Jutsu!" A kick. "I always have to use techniques that could get me killed." Another punch. "Hiraishin!" A punch. "Kyuubi!" A kick. "…_THAT _JUTSU!" A knee. "I'm not strong enough!" A spinning kick. "I need to get stronger." A punch. "So I can live, and keep my promise to Sakura-chan." A high kick.

"I came here to find Lee," A voice spoke from behind him. He turned around to see the familiar pale face, white eyes and long black hair of Hyuuga Neji. "Instead I find someone more interesting." The older boy continued with a small smile.

"Hey there, White Eyes." Naruto said, going back to kicking and punching the log, "Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to talk."

"Uzumaki Naruto, not in the mood to talk?" He teased lightly, "A lot must have happened in the last two years." Naruto didn't say anything as he continued to pound away at the log. "Heh, it must be destiny for us to meet here," Neji continued, "Because for a while now, I've been thinking about a rematch against you."

Naruto stopped punching. He looked over his shoulder at the tall Hyuuga. "A rematch?"

Neji nodded, "Yes. We've both been training over these last two and a half years, let's see if the result is still the same."

Naruto's face lit up in a small grin, "Okay, as long as you don't start lecturing me about destiny and crap like that again."

"Okay, as long as you don't start mouthing off about becoming Hokage."

Naruto's grin faltered slightly, "Okay…asshole."

Both fighters settled into their fighting stances, Naruto's loose and unorthodox; Neji's firm and graceful. The two stared at each other for a long minute, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Naruto broke the stillness, reaching into his pouch and pulling out a handful of shuriken, he threw them atNeji, performing the necessary seals, "_Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!" _As the shuriken multiplied, Neji smirked. He threw both his open palms in front of him, "_HAKKE KUUSHOU!"_

The chakra blast from his hand sent the shuriken flying back at Naruto. "Damn, that's a new one," Naruto cursed under his breath as he formed a seal, causing multiple kage bunshin to pop into existence and form a wall in front of him, taking the reversed attack.

As Naruto stood up in the cloud of smoke caused by the disappearing kage bunshin, Sakura arrived at the entrance of the training field. _Damn, _she thought, _I didn't think Naruto would come to this training field. What's he doing fighting Neji? _

"Yo, Sakura," A voice from up in a nearby tree startled her, she looked up to see Kakashi sitting on a tree branch, his crutches abandoned.

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing out here?" She inquired, jumping up to join him on the tree branch.

He shrugged, "Tsunade told me to go back to the hospital, but I didn't want to be subjected to the '_Ever watchful protection' _of Gai." Sakura giggled slightly. "Now come on," Kakashi continued, "Let's watch. This could get interesting."

Naruto dodged twice, as Neji broke through what was left of his Kage Bunshin wall and attacked with two palm thrusts. He then ducked and tried to sweep the Hyuuga's legs. Neji jumped, utilizing his Byakugan to spot one of Naruto's clones attacking from behind with a high kick. He cart wheeled in mid air, avoiding both Narutos attacks.

As Neji landed, both Narutos continued on with their attack, synchronizing their attacks to try and get Neji as he dodged, looking for his blind spot. But Neji, didn't have a blind spot, and both of them knew it.

The white eyed teen managed to catch one of Naruto's punches, using the blonds own momentum to fling him across the field. He then turned to the other Naruto, ducking one of his punches and thrusting his palm into his chest in a signature Hyuuga move.

Nartuo stumbled backward, coughing as the chakra enhanced palm connected.

!-!-!-!-!

On the side lines, Sakura gasped, "He using his Gentle Fist style in this kind of match?"

Kakashi chuckled, "Neji is taking this very seriously. He's been wanting this rematch with Naruto for quite a while now. Gai told me."

"But isn't that dangerous?" Sakura asked in worry.

Kakashi just shrugged, "You know how Naruto is, he'll probably enjoy the challenge." Sakura didn't look convinced as she tuned back into the on-going fight.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto reached up and grabbed onto Nejis still outstretched arm and smirked. "Gotcha," He said. Neji's eye's went wide as he noticed the change in Naruto's chakra with his Byakugan. He tried pulling his arm away, but the blonds grip was too strong. There was nothing he could as the Naruto Kage Bunshin exploded right in front of him.

!-!-!-!-!

"See, Naruto's going all out, too." Kakashi commented.

Sakura just watched on with her mouth agape.

!-!-!-!-!

Neji lay in his own personal hole caused by the explosion. A hot-blooded yell caught his attention as Naruto jumped through the air and made to bring his foot down on him. The Hyuuga raised his palm and brought it down in a chopping motion, _"HAKKE KIRISHOU!" _He shouted.

Naruto crossed his arms in front of him, bracing for impact, but unlike the attack before, he found himself suffering a diagonal cut across his crossed arms, instead of being blown back. Neji kicked out of his small crater just in time as Naruto came crashing down.

"Damn," Naruto cursed, surveying his sliced arms, "You've picked up some new moves."

"After two and a half years, that would be expected, wouldn't it?" Neji questioned, sinking into his fighting stance.

"Yeah I guess so." Naruto replied. He formed a familiar seal and produced five kage bunshin.

"This didn't work so well the first time you tried it," Neji commented, "What makes you think it will work now?"

Naruto grinned, "Because I'm stronger now." Two hands popped out from under the ground and grabbed onto Neji's legs. "And you still fall for the same tricks!" Naruto exclaimed, charging and punching Neji in the face. Neji fell backwards, still being held. But before he even hit the ground, he popped into a puff of smoke, being replaced with log.

_Kawarimi no Jutsu? _Naruto thought to himself, _I didn't expect him to use that._

He heard Neji's approach behind him. He sent out two of his Kage Bunshin to battle him. The Kage Bunshin ran forward, while Naruto held his hand out in front of himself, building up a ball of rotating chakra.

Neji met the two clones. He jabbed one in the stomach with two fingers then ducked and swept the legs out from under the other. He continued his charge and was met with three more Kage Bunshin, all the while Naruto secretly built up his Rasengan. Neji dispatched the three clones easily, and continued his charge toward Naruto, somewhat surprised to find Naruto charging at him also.

Neji saw the rotating ball of chakra in Nauto's hand and stopped his charge. As Naruto reached him with and thrust with the ball of Chakra, Neji began spinning like a top as he forced charka out of his body. The two whirling domes of chakra met.

"_RASENGAN!"_

"_KAITEN!"_

There was a flash of blue light as the two techniques met head on. But, once the light faded, both combatants were revealed to be perfectly unharmed.

"What the hell happened to my technique?" Naruto questioned.

"It seems our attacks dispelled each other." Neji commented. Naruto raised his eyebrow at the older boy, "I'm not sure why, though."

"It's because you both have the same chakra rotation." A voice answered their question. The two of them looked over to see Kakashi, supported by Sakura, making his was over to them.

"Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan? What are you two doing here?" Naruto inquired.

"Just enjoying the show," Kakashi answered, "You can let me walk on my own now, Sakura." He continued as they reached the battle zone. Sakura let the man go, and he shakily walked over to one of the training logs to lean against.

"Kakashi-sempai, you said our techniques canceled each other out because we have the same chakra rotation?"

"Exactly," Kakashi answered, "Had the two of you been using opposite rotations, the results could have been a lot worse. But, as it is, I guess this rematch is a tie."

Neji and Naruto looked at each other. "Well, it looks like we'll have to have another rematch sometime." Naruto commented.

Neji nodded, "Indeed."

"Naruto, come here and let me look at your injuries." Sakura said. "I'll check you next, Neji." Naruto walked over to Sakura and she began to inspect his cuts, and his few bumps and bruises. "I swear, what is it with you boys?"

Kakashi just chuckled as both boys got an offended look on their face.

!-!-!-!-!

"What I don't understand," Tsunade spoke as she sipped on her sake, "Is why Akatsuki didn't use this chance to capture Naruto."

Jiraiya shrugged, "From what I've managed to attain, Naruto 'belongs' to either Kisame or Itachi. This Tobi guys is probably assigned a different bijuu to capture. Plus, they probably didn't even know Naruto was going to be in Kyanon, they probably just wanted to get rid of Akuma"

Tsunade nodded, "That makes sense, but why didn't this Tobi guy want Urufu?"

Jiraiya took on a pensieve expression, "That's a good question." He commented, "From Sakura's report, Urufu knew about Akatsuki also, so they should've gone after him too. You should probably send another team to that village, to make sure Akatsuki doesn't come back."

Tsunade nodded, "I'll get on that in a minute."

The two of them lapsed into silence as they sipped on their sake. "By the way, what's with teaching the kid Hiraishin?"

Jiraiya sighed, "He was bugging me to teach him a new jutsu, I figured Hiraishin would be a good idea. I told him not to use it though, because we didn't have enough time for him to perfect it. It uses up too much of his chakra, even when he uses the Kyuubi he has a risk of killing himself or causing serious damage to his chakra coil system."

Tsunade nodded, "And like the idiot he is, that kid used it anyways. I'll give him a look over tomorrow to make sure he didn't suffer any hidden damage."

Jiraiya chuckled as he drained the last of his sake and stood up. "You sure do worry about him a lot." He commented. Before Tsunade could say something else Jiraiya cut him off, "I'll be going now," He continued, "Data researching, and all that."

As he left, Tsunade looked at the stack of paperwork she had to work on, then she turned back to her sake bottle. "Meh," she sighed, as she continued to drink.

!-!-!-!-!

A dog masked ANBU stood on the threshold of the small village of Kyanon. Behind his mask his eyes were wide.

"Wh-who would do this?" One of his comrades questioned.

The dog masked ANBU gulped. _Now I know why Hokage-sama sent us out here._ He thought to himself.

The small, humble village of Kyanon had been slaughtered.


	6. Lunch and a Mission!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed or added this story to their alerts/favorites.

* * *

There was a pitter patter of feet as a young girl ran up an ornate staircase. She reached the large wooden doors at the top and burst through without any sense of respect.

"Mother, Father!" She exclaimed breathlessly, "It's happening!"

The girls parents sat up in their bed and shared a grave look, "Show me," Her father demanded. The girl turned around, showing off a mark on her back. The father sighed and got out of bed. "Get Ataenushi," He told his daughter, "Tell him to send an emergency request to Konoha for two of their top jounin." The daughter nodded, bowing to her father and quickly exiting the room.

The father walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out a fancy silk robe, his wife watched him with worry. "Ugh," He groaned, "Having children his so troublesome."

!-!-!-!-!

Tsunade sat in front of her desk. It was midday, and she had finally began working on her paperwork, albeit begrudgingly. She was almost glad to her the sound of her doors nearly being knocked off their hinges as a squad of ANBU barreled in.

"Hokage-sama!" The leader, a dog masked ANBU addressed her, "We have urgent news!"

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "Obviously," She remarked dryly.

The dog masked man walked up to her desk, leaning over it and whispering to her, "The town of Kyanon," He began, surprising Tsunade with the urgency in his voice, "It has been slaughtered."

Tsunade's eyes widened. She looked at each ANBU in standing in her room, each of which gave her an apprehensive nod. "H-How?" She questioned.

"We don't know," The lead ANBU answered, "We did a search for survivors and came back to report once we found none."

"No survivors?" The hokage clarified. The lead ANBU nodded. Tsunade gulped. "Listen." She spoke uneasily, "I don't want you to tell anyone about what you saw." She ordered. Some of the ANBU looked uneasy about this, but they agreed anyways. "I want you to take Shizune, Genma, and Raidou back with you to Kyanon and take an accurate survey of the damage there. I don't want anyone to know about this."

"But, Hokage-sama," The lead ANBU protested, "It this is an act of war, shouldn't we-"

"No," Tsunade squashed his protest, "We don't want to alert anyone yet, I will decide what to do with this information once the damage report is completed. Understood?"

All four ANBU saluted, "Aye, Hokage-sama!"

Tsunade nodded, "Good, now go!"

The ANBU team left to go about their mission.

Tsunade sat behind her desk for a few minutes thinking. Then she began pacing about her room. Then she stood in front of her window gazing out at the beautiful city of Konoha. _This is troublesome, _She thought to herself, _If the report shows that it was their negligence that lead to the destruction of Kyanon, I'll be forced to make them resign from being ninja, and the council will want them punished. This is very troublesome. _

She watched as a messenger hawk flew into Konoha, heading into the messenger office.

!-!-!-!-!

Sakura walked slowly into the training field. Kakashi had informed her that this was the place where Naruto could normally be found during the day. When the blond had told her before that he trained a lot on his journey with Jiraiya, she thought he was just exaggerating, but Naruto had spent most of the day before training, and most of the current day at the training field, only stopping every once in a while to eat ramen.

She spotted her comrade somewhere more to the middle of the field. He was laying down, his chest quickly rising and falling, and his headband had fallen over his eyes. She approached him quietly.

"Hey, Sakura-chan," He greeted, not looking at her, "What's up?"

Sakura was startled, "How did you know it was me?" She questioned.

Naruto sat up and pushed his headband back into it's normal resting place. His answer to her question was just a shrug and a grin. "What's up?" He repeated.

"Well, Ino wanted me to eat some barbeque with her team, I was wondering if you wanted to go." She answered.

Naruto stood up, "I was going to get some ramen," He said, scratching the back of his head, "But I guess barbeque would be okay."

!-!-!-!-!

Sakura watched in sick fascination as the eating contest between Naruto and Choujii waged on.

"Boys are disgusting, right Sakura?" Ino commented, as the two boys shoveled various types of cooked meat into their mouths, hot off the grill. Sakura just nodded.

"Hey," Shikamaru drawled, "Don't group me in with those two."

Ino gave the lazy boy a teasing smile, "What, you aren't a man?" She questioned, "Then should I start calling you Shikamaru-_chan_?"

"Oy," Shikamaru muttered. He jerked as his sensei, Asuma, patted him on the back roughly.

"Hey, " He said, "Don't just sit there and take it Shikamaru, defend your manhood."

Shikamaru just shrugged and leaned back in his booth seat, "That would be too troublesome," He commented.

"Tch. Too lazy to even defend you manhood?" Asuma said, "Sometimes I worry about you."

Shikamaru opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by a gagging noise. "Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, as the blond haired ninja began choking on a piece of food.

"Ah! You idiot!" Shikamaru exclaimed, "Spit it out! Spit it out!"

"Eww, no!" Ino squealed, "Don't spit it out, that's gross!"

Chouji didn't seem to notice anything was wrong, he continued to stuff his face full of meat. Sakura was worried, as Naruto became blue in the face. Shikamaru and Ino kept bickering about whether or not Naruto should try and spit it up, and Asuma sat back and did nothing.

Naruto struggled with the piece of meat lodged in his throat, slowly, he coaxed it down and managed to swallow it. Taking a big gasp of air once his airway was clear. "Damn pork," The blond coughed, causing the bickering of Ino and Shikamaru to stop, "This is why I like ramen better."

Ino, Shikamaru, and Sakura all sighed, "You're such an idiot," All three of them spoke simultaneously.

"Ah, it's a good thing that situation worked out," Asuma said with a carefree smile.

Shikamaru turned on his sensei, "You're a jounin and didn't even lift a finger to help." The bearded jounin just chuckled and scratched the back of his head, eliciting a sigh from Shikamaru.

"But that was a good meal!" Naruto said, patting his now full stomach.

Sakura glared at him, "Naruto, you almost died." The blond boy just shrugged, watching as Chouji continued to stuff his face.

"Well," He continued, "I gotta go."

Asuma chuckled as Naruto stood up from the table, "Just going to eat and leave, eh Naruto?"

He nodded, "I've got training."

"Boys are always training," Ino sighed. Shikamaru grumbled something, but kept to himself.

"Whatever," Naruto said, "See you guys later. See ya, Sakura-chan."

Sakura waved as he retreated, "Bye, Naruto." As the blond boy left, Ino leaned over to Sakura and nudged her with her elbow.

"So, you and Naruto, eh?" She asked suggestively.

Sakura started at her friends implications, "What? No!"

"Well, you did invite him to lunch. Sounds like it to me." Ino stated, as if it were obvious. Sakura just glared at her friend, while Shikamaru sighed and Asuma chuckled.

And Chouji continued stuffing his face.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto walked out into his chosen training field, set to continue on with his training. He was surprised to find Hyuuga Neji waiting in the middle of the filed.

"Neji?" Naruto asked, "Ready for that rematch all ready?"

The Hyuuga teen shook his head, "I've come to retrieve you. The Hokage requested it."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "The old lady, eh?" He questioned, "I was going to continue my training, but I guess I should go. She might have some news about Sasuke."

Naruto began to make the trek to the Hokage's tower, with Neji following behind. "Sasuke?" The white eyed teen inquired, "I don't know why I would be required for that."

Naruto raised an eyebrow over his shoulder, "Huh?"

"She requested my presence, also." He answered. "I doubt it has anything to do with Sasuke. It's most likely a mission."

Naruto groaned, "A mission? I don't want to go on any crappy mission. I've got training to do."

Neji raised an eyebrow, "As ninja it is our duty to do missions for our village."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Naruto waved him off. Neji shook his head at Naruto's actions, and the two of them continued on walking in silence. They reached the tall figure of the Hokages tower and walked up in continued silence. The two of them entered the Hokage's office.

"You requested our presence Hokage-sama?" Neji spoke politely, bowing to the woman behind the desk.

"Yeah, what do you want, old woman?" Naruto said impatiently as he walked in and took a seat. Neji grimaced at Naruto's rude behavior and took a seat. Tsunade glared at the blond, but didn't say anything.

"I've got a mission for the two of you." Tsunade said in an annoyed voice. She tossed a scroll to Neji. Both boys were surprised to see an 'A' marking on it. "The daimyo is requesting two ninja to escort his daughter to a temple in some valley somewhere. I don't know the exact details, you'll get them once you reach his palace in the capital."

Naruto whistled as he commandeered the scroll from Neji. "'A' rank, eh?" He questioned excitedly, "This mission might be worth my time after all."

"Don't get too excited, kid." Tsunade said, "It's probably just 'A' rank because the daimyo is over protective of his daughter. I don't see why you would encounter any danger."

Naruto sighed and tossed the scroll back to Neji. The Hyuuga teen looked it over and faced the Hokage questioningly, "This is a request for two jounin." He said, "I am a Jounin, but last time I checked, Naruto was not."

Tsunade just shrugged, "Naruto is skilled enough to handle this, and I would rather save my elite Jounin for more important missions." Neji gave her a look. "What? I'm not saying your not a good jounin, as a rookie this could be a good opportunity for you."

Neji shrugged, "We will get going right away, Hokage-sama." He looked over to Naruto.

"What?" He questioned, "I don't get a say in this? I would rather train than escort some brat."

"No," Tsunade answered, "You don't have a choice. Go get ready."

Naruto groaned and stood up. "Whatever, old lady. I'll meet you later, Neji."

Tsunade sighed as Naruto left, she looked over towards Neji. "Make sure that kid doesn't get into trouble." She said.

Neji nodded, "Aye, Hokage-sama."

!-!-!-!-!

Neji stood leaning against one of the gates leading out of the village. He had already packed and explained the situation to his teammates and family, yet Naruto hadn't shown up. He was beginning to think the blond wasn't going to show up at all.

_This is a curious mission, _Neji thought to himself, _Hokage-sama really has no excuse for sending a genin on a mission that requires a Jounin. It seemed as if she wanted to get Naruto out of the village for some reason. Perhaps it has to do with '_it_'._

It. The Kyuubi. Neji knew. All of team Gai knew. They had been told about it before going on the mission to rescue the Kazekage. They had each sworn that they wouldn't mention it out loud to anyone, especially to Naruto.

"Yo." A voice broke him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Naruto approaching.

"Took you long enough." Neji said, pushing off the wall he was leaning on.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Yeah, well I walked by Ichiraku's ramen, and decided to have a bowl," Neji raised an eyebrow, "Or eight. Whatever, lets go and get his over with."

The two of them took off into the trees, heading into a new mission.

!-!-!-!-!

The two ninja made an uneventful journey to the Fire Countries Capital. The two of them weren't the best of friends, but they managed to get along well enough, not having any confrontations on the way. The journey took two days, and they now stood on the edge of the large city. Both of them couldn't help but marvel at it's sheer size. The buildings reached high into the sky. People crowded the streets, being nearly shoulder to shoulder.

"Damn this place is huge," Naruto commented.

Neji nodded in agreement, "We should probably head straight to the daimyo's palace." Neither of them had to look hard for the palace, even from street level it was possible to see it past all the other tall buildings.

Neji began pushing through the thick crowds. Naruto looked up at the towering figure of the palace in the middle of the city and sighed. _I hope this mission isn't a total waste of time. _He thought as the began to push through the crowds, following after Neji.

* * *

I forgot to o mention at the end of the last chapter. The technique Neji used, _Hakke Kirishou, _was created by me. It roughly translates to _Eight Divination Cutting Palm._


	7. Koneko!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed or added this story to their alerts/favorites.

* * *

The two ninja approached the main gates that surrounded the daimyo's palace. Their trip into the city had become easier once they had pushed past the main streets and entered the plaza in front the of the palace. The gate was guarded by two samurai, who stood at attention as they approached.

"Who goes there?" One of them questioned, putting his hand on his sword.

"Ninja from Konoha, here at the request of the Damiyo," Neji answered, bowing slightly in respect. Naruto eyed the Hyuugas actions, and copied them.

"Ninja?" The other guard questioned, also putting his hand on his swords hilt, "There have been no request for ninja."

"There must be some kind of mistake," Neji said, pulling out the mission statement, "This document obviously is a request for two ninja, requested by the Daimyo."

One of the samurai snatched the scroll from Neji rudely, reading it with a scrutinizing gaze. "This is obviously a fake," He spoke. The other samurai drew his sword, a deadly look on his face.

"Hey, bastard!" Naruto exclaimed, "We got that from the Hokage, there's no way that's a fake." The samurai swung his sword, stopping it an inch from Naruto's neck with a smirk.

"I'm tired of you damn ninja, thinking you're tough shit!" He exclaimed. Naruto stood still, a dangerous look in his eye as he eyed the samurai without a flinch. The other samurai tossed the scroll to the ground, fully drawing his sword and pointing it a Neji.

"You don't want to do this," Neji said, narrowing his eyes.

"Oh, I think I do," The samurai commented.

"Neji," Naruto said, "I'm about to kick both of their asses."

"Goei-san, Bannin-san, please stop!" A shout came from above them. All four people looked up as a person feel out of the sky and landed in-between the stand off. He was a average sized man, with long brown hair, streaked with gray. He looked up at the two samurai, "I called for these ninja, there is no reason for a confrontation."

Both samurai reluctantly put away their swords. Naruto continued to watch them with a glare as both of them bowed to the older man, "We apologize, Ataenushi-san." One of them said.

The one called Ataenushi returned their bows. Then he turned around and addressed the two ninja. "Thanks you for coming," He said, "Please, follow me this way." He began to walk forward as the two samurai opened the gate for him and Naruto and Neji followed. Naruto made sure to throw the two samurai a glare as he passed them.

They crossed the threshold of the gate and walked into a large garden in front of the palace. "I'm sorry about that." The older man in front of them said, "The samurai who guard this palace don't take kindly to ninja. They are constantly afraid that they are going to be replaced."

"You should replace those bastards," Naruto commented, "They're lucky I didn't kick their asses."

Neji shook his head as the older man winced, "Yes, very sorry." He stopped and turned around, "Oh, yes," He bowed to the two of them, "I am Kigurou Ataenushi, head of the guard of this palace."

Both Naruto and Neji bowed in return. "Hyuuga Neji."

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Ataenushi smiled, "A pleasure to meet the both of you." He said, as he continued walking towards the large doors to the palace.

"You are a ninja," Neji commented.

Ataenushi nodded, "Very perceptive of you." He complimented, "Yes, I am a ninja. I used to be a Chuunin in the village of Konoha, I retired quite a few years ago, but later decided to become a guard in this palace. Somehow I eventually rose up the ranks to become the head guard."

Neji nodded as Naruto looked around in boredom. The palace was surrounded by a garden, filled with trees and all types of exotic flowers. There were few people outside, a couple of gardeners, and a few more guards.

"The Hokage informed us that we would need to escort the Lord's daughter to a temple somewhere, but she didn't give us any details." Neji spoke.

Ataenushi nodded, and Naruto vaguely tuned in, "Yes, it's a voyage the daimyo wants her to make. Sort of a coming of age thing." Ataenushi explained, "The temple is a few days travel to the south, we don't expect much confrontation, but there is always a chance."

Neji nodded, "That's understandable."

"Sounds boring," Naruto groaned.

Ataenushi chuckled as they began going up a small set of stairs to reach the palace doors. "Sorry,…Naruto?" Naruto nodded, "Yes, well I'm sorry."

"Whatever," Naruto sighed, as they arrived in front of the palace doors. He craned his neck up, marveling at how high the doors went. "You guys get a lot of giants coming through here?"

"No," Ataenushi chuckled, "This palace was designed by the daimyo's wife, and she has a very exaggerated style." He raised a fist and knocked on the large doors three times. The doors slowly parted, allowing them in. The entrance room was grand. It was a large circular room, with an ornate spiral staircase leading up. Naruto found himself marveling at the size of the room. "As I said," Ataenushi commented, "An exaggerated style." Neji cast a quick look around the room, obviously impressed, yet not letting it get to him. "The daimyo is waiting for us in the library," Ataenushi said, leading them to a set of doors, "Follow me."

Naruto and Neji followed Ataenushi to the library, as they entered the doors they saw an older man sitting at a desk reading a book. "Shushan-sama." Ataenushi greeted the man with a bow. Neji and Naruto followed his example. "These are the ninja from Konoha that you requested."

The man nodded vaguely, not looking up from his book. "I believe Koneko is somewhere with her mother. Probably somewhere in the gardens."

"Is she ready for her trip?" Ataenushi questioned.

The man shrugged, "I'm not sure." He looked up from his book. "These are the ninja that were sent? When I asked for the top Jounin, I was expecting that guy with the eye."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, he opened his mouth, but was cut off, "Unfortunately, Kakashi-san was unavailable," Neji answered, "The hokage decided to send the two of us, and we are quite capable of carrying out this mission."

"Whatever," The man waved him off, "Just make sure she gets there within a couple of days and everything will be fine." He went back to reading his book, now totally ignoring the other three people in the room.

Ataenushi bowed and turned around, beckoning the other two to follow. They exited the library and returned to the entrance hall.

"What an asshole," Naruto grumbled.

"Naruto-kun," Ataenushi addressed him, "It would be best if you didn't speak about daimyo-sama that way, he is the leader of this country, after all."

"Whatever."

Neji shook his head, "You will never get anywhere in life if you don't learn respect for those higher above you."

Naruto raised his eyebrow at the Hyuuga, "I'll respect the people above me when they do something to earn my respect," He said, "Plus, who are you to talk? You hate the main branch of your family."

"That was a long time ago, Naruto." Neji answered.

"Come on," Ataenushi beckoned, "We need to find Koneko-san so we can leave."

"Is that them, Ataenushi-kun?" A voice called out from above them. All three males looked up to see two women descending the stairs. One was older, while the other was younger, with dark hair and yellow eyes.

Ataenushi bowed at the descending figures, "Greetings, Fujoshi-sama, Koneko-san." He said, "These are the ninja who will be going with us on the trip."

The young woman stopped her descent and looked over Neji and Naruto with a scrutinizing gaze, her face splitting into a grin. "They're cute." She complimented, causing both ninja to gape slightly.

"Koneko," The older woman, Fujoshi, admonished, "That's not the proper way to greet young men, especially those who are here to help."

"I can't help it if they're cute," Koneko argued as she continued descending down the stairs, "What, you expect me to see a couple of cute guys and not say anything about it?"

The older woman sighed, "I've given up on you ever becoming a proper woman." She stated, "But you could at least humor me and go down there and greet them in a civilized way."

Koneko shrugged, "Yes, mother," She said, reaching the end of the stairs and walking over to Naruto and Neji. She surprised them both by throwing her arms around them and pulling them into a hug. Both males stood still, not sure how to react. The girls mother sighed and Ataenushi laughed, "I'm Sei Koneko," She greeted breaking the hug.

"Hyuuga Neji," The white eyed teen introduced himself, pushing his shock aside and bowing to the girl. She then turned to Naruto, looking at him expectantly.

"…Uzumaki Naruto." He said slowly, eyeing the strange girl, watching just incase she decided to attack him with another hug.

She grinned at him, "Uzumaki Naruto, eh?" She questioned, "You are really cute."

"Koneko!" The girls mother exclaimed, grabbing her and pulling her away from the surprised Ninja. _I-is she a female pervert?_ Naruto asked himself, _I didn't even know they existed._

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Koneko waved off her mothers pestering, "So, are we leaving now or what?" She questioned Ataenushi.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Leave? You don't even have your bags."

"I already had one of my attendants send them down to the guards." She answered smartly.

"What about your father, aren't you going to say goodbye to him?" Ataenushi asked with a raised eyebrow and a small smile.

Koneko's face darkened slightly, which caused the ever perceptive Neji to raise an eyebrow. "I wasn't planning on it." She grumbled.

"Koneko! Get in there and say goodbye to your father." Her mother ordered. The girl sighed, but trudged on to the library with her mother following. As she left, Ataenushi chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry about that," He said to Naruto and Neji, "She's a bit…_friendly_."

"No shit," Naruto grumbled. Neji remained quiet, contemplating the girl and her strange behavior.

"Well, let's get out of here." Koneko said loudly as she returned from the library alone. Ataenushi nodded and he began to lead them out of the palace. Koneko walked up to Naruto and looked at him with a smile. "So, how old are you, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto gave her a questioning gaze, "Why do you want to know?"

"If we're going to be traveling together for a couple of days, we should get to know each other," She answered.

Naruto shrugged, figuring that made sense, "I'm fifteen."

"Oh really? I'm fourteen. Do you have a girlfriend?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?" He exclaimed, causing the girl to giggle.

"Now, Koneko, don't bother him with your questions," Ataenushi said as he stopped at the main doors and knocked on them three times, causing them to open. "These young men are here for your protection, not to be your dates."

Koneko mock pouted, "Oh Ataenushi, you never let me have any fun." She said, leaving Naruto's side to walk up close with the head guard.

Naruto looked over to Neji, who had a small smile on his face. He looked forward and saw that Koneko was looking at him over her shoulder, when she caught his gaze, she gave him a wink and a smile. Naruto sighed, "I knew this mission was going to be annoying."


	8. Journey!

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed or added this story to their alearts/favorites.

* * *

The quartet walked through the palace garden and made it to the palace gates no problem. As they passed through, Naruto noticed that there were new guards, although they didn't look any more friendly than the other two. The two of them bowed to Koneko as they walked past.

"What happened to those other bastards?" Naruto asked out loud.

"What's that, Naruto-kun?" Koneko asked, looking back at him.

"Naruto and Neji had a bit of trouble with the guards upon their arrival," Ataenushi answered for him.

"Oh, Naruto-kun," Koneko said airily, "They were probably just jealous of your good looks."

Naruto started, "Do you always have to say such things!" He snapped.

"It's not my fault you're so sexy, Naruto-kun." Koneko swooned.

Naruto growled. Neji looked over to Naruto, "Do you always have to cause such confrontations?"

"It's not my fault if she's annoying."

"Oh, Naruto-kun, even though you insult me, I still think you're sexy."

"Now, now, everyone," Ataenushi said, "Let's not get into any serious confrontations."

Naruto just sighed as they found themselves reaching the main streets of the city. He was expecting to have to push through the thick crowds again, but was slightly surprised when the crowds parted for them.

"The joys of traveling with the feudal lords daughter." Koneko said in a singsong tone.

They made their way through the city quickly with the crowds being no problem, some people even stopped to bow at Koneko. They made their way to the exiting gate of the city and stopped. Ataenushi took off his pack and dug around inside. He pulled out a map and a compass and examined the two of them together, Neji walked over to his side to watch.

"Looks as if we should go this way," The older man pointed. Neji looked out in that direction, activating his Byakugan.

"That path is safe," He said with a nod.

"Of course it is," Koneko said, walking up next to the two men, "It's the same way we always go."

Neji raised an eyebrow, "You've done this before?" He clarified. She just nodded. Neji looked over to Naruto, who was standing off to the side, staring up at the sky. "Naruto, get over here."

Naruto raised an eyebrow and walked over, "What do you want?"

"We are charged with Koneko-sans protection on this mission. You need to take this more seriously. We will walk in a line, I will be at the front, and you will be at the back." He said, Naruto just nodded disinterestedly, "Ataenushi-san, you should travel along side Koneko-san."

The older man nodded, "Sounds like a plan to me."

"Good, let's head out."

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto walked a forest path in boredom. He was at his position in the rear, but he wasn't even taking his it seriously. There were no signs of any threats, and he knew there never would be. Ahead of him, Koneko and Ataenushi talked about random stuff he didn't care about, and in front of them was Neji, being quiet and looking out for threats with his Byakugan.

_He's taking this too seriously. _Naruto thought to himself, _We've been walking for a few hours and there hasn't been any signs of a threat. That daimyo was just being over protective. _

"We're stopping here," Neji called out at the front of the line.

"Stop?" Naruto questioned as they came to a halt. He looked around, seeing nothing but trees and an ordinary dirt path. "There's nothing around here, why don't we get to a village and get a hotel or something?"

"Because," Neji replied, "The next village is too far away for us to make before night fall." He pointed through the trees, "There's a clearing over there with stream that runs through it, we can make camp there and continue or journey tomorrow morning."

"Camp out!" Koneko squealed, "It's been forever since I've been able to camp out." She began rushing through the trees.

"Hey, Koneko," Ataenushi called as he began to jog after her, "Don't get too excited!"

Naruto shook his head as he began to follow after the two. "This girl," He spoke to Neji, who was following him, "She's annoying."

"Your feelings for her don't matter, it's our mission to protect her, and you should do that in the most professional way." Neji answered calmly.

"You don't like her either, do you?" Naruto asked.

Neji shrugged, "She is obviously rather excitable, and she seems to have some sort of crush on you, but there is nothing wrong with her as a person."

"Whatever," Naruto sighed.

The two of them broke through the trees and saw Ataenushi and Koneko setting up camp. "What took the two of you so long?" Koneko questioned as they arrived.

The two ignored her question, "Naruto," Neji addressed him, "Go over there and catch us some fish, I'll start up a fire while Ataenushi and Koneko set up the tents."

Naruto nodded, going to the stream and performing his Kage Bunshin, preparing to use the old technique he and Sasuke had used in the Chuunin Exam.

!-!-!-!-!

A few hours later, night had dawned on the small campsite and Naruto, Neji and Ataenushi could be found sitting around the fire. Koneko had retired earlier in the evening after the quartet had eaten their dinner.

"I must apologize," Ataenushi spoke, "For Koneko-sans behavior, specifically towards you, Naruto-kun. She isn't used to getting out of the palace and meeting new people, so she has a tendency to act…"

"Annoying?" Naruto finished for him.

"For lack of a better word, yes." Ataenushi continued with a small smile, "Plus, I think she has a crush on you."

Naruto groaned. "It doesn't matter. I've had to deal with annoying people before, she's definitely not the worst." All went quiet for a few minutes as the three of them stared into the fire. Neji broke the silence with a chuckle. "What are you laughing at?" Naruto questioned.

"If Hinata-san knew there was another girl crushing on you, she would be devastated." Neji responded with a small smile.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and scratched the back of his head, "Huh? Why would Hinata care?"

Neji shook his head, "Never mind. We should get to sleep. It would be best if we woke up early in the morning."

Ataenushi nodded in agreement. He stood up and put out the fire with a bottle of water. "Yes, sleep would be good. 'Night you two."

"Good night."

"'Night."

The older man walked over to the tent he shared with Koneko, he began unzipping it, but suddenly remembered something. Neji watched him in curiosity as he walked over to his pack and pulled out a small pouch before finally getting into his tent. Naruto watched also, but shrugged it off. Neji got up and entered his tent, bidding Naruto good night and making sure he knew not to stay up late.

Naruto stretched out, using his pack as a pillow. Neji had offered him a spot in his tent, but Naruto had decided not to, he actually liked sleeping outside. He leaned back on his improvised pillow and stared up at the stars. He quickly found himself dozing off.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto's eyes snapped open. The first thing he noticed was that it was early, too early. The sky was a dark gray, the sun barely peeking up over the horizon. The second thing he noticed was that something was out of place, or rather, something was in a place that it wasn't supposed to be. Someone was sneaking around their camp, someone who was way too loud to be a ninja.

He closed his eyes as he heard feet approach. The sound stopped right next to him, and then he felt the cold steel of some kind of blade against his throat. He snapped his eyes open again, his hand flashing forward and grabbing onto the blade. The black clothed man's reaction speed proved he was not a ninja.

With a snarl, Naruto pulled the sword from the man and tossed it to the side. He got up into a crouching position and swept the mans legs from under him. He switched his attention to his left, as Neji burst out of his tent.

"What's going on?" He inquired as Naruto slammed his foot down on the downed enemies chest.

"Someone just tried to kill me!" Naruto exclaimed. Neji looked around. Trying to pierce the darkness of the early morning. Veins appeared around his eye as he activated his Byakugan.

"There's more of them," He whispered, "They've got our camp surrounded."

"What the hell does that matter?" Naruto said, "They're weak, probably not even ninja."

"That doesn't matter," Neji answered, looking around, counting all the enemies, "We must not underestimate our enemies, and we must protect Koneko-san."

"What?" A voice sounded as Koneko unzipped her tent and gazed at the two ninja, "What are you two doing? Is it time to go already?" She questioned them sleepily. The sound of a rattling chain could be heard and Neji dashed forward quickly. A sickle attached to a chain nearly decapitated Koneko, but Neji caught it in midair. He yanked on the chain, causing a gasp at the other end as the man holding it was pulled forward from his hiding spot, where Neji met him with a palm to the chest.

"Get the girl!" A shout came out from the surrounding forest. A large force of men, nearly twenty strong came rushing out of the forest, swords drawn. The majority of them rushed towards Konekos tent. They were stopped as Naruto appeared in front of them, swinging out his leg in a high roundhouse kick. His kick connected with one, knocking him into a few other. He then threw out his arms, cloths lining a few more.

Neji appeared next to him, "Get back, Naruto!" He commanded. Naruto looked at him questioningly, but did as he was told. The group of swordsmen that were left standing circled around Neji. With a smirk the Hyuuga began to spin, emitting chakra from his body.

"_KAITEN!"_

The swordsmen were lifted off the ground and spun. Once the technique ended, they were flung all around, impacting against trees and rocks.

There was a scream, causing both Konoha ninja to look to Koneko and see her being approached by a man in black, holding his sword up high. Naruto quickly began reaching into his pouch, pulling out shuriken, as Neji charged at the man.

He brought his sword down on the screaming Koneko, and it was caught by a seething Ataenushi. The swordsman had a brief second to see the hate in Ataenushi's eyes, before his sword was knocked out of his hand by a wave of shuriken and Neji knocked him out cold with a palm thrust to the head.

The now crying Koneko reached up and wrapped Ataenushi in a hug from behind. "Ataenushi-kun!" She cried. The older man dropped to his knees, his breath short. Naruto walked over slowly, watching the couple on the ground.

"Took you long enough, old man." He said.

"Sorry, Naruto-kun," Ataenushi apologized, "My reaction speeds aren't what they used to be."

Naruto opened his mouth to continue, but he found himself being tackled to the ground. "Oh, Naruto-kun!" Koneko cried, "You helped save me! You're so sexy!"

"Gah!" Naruto exclaimed, pushing the girl off of him, "You didn't stay sad for very long!"

Ataenushi smiled, but stayed on his knees, staring at his cut hands. "Come, Ataenushi-san," Neji said to him, "I can bandage your hands." Ataenushi nodded and followed Neji as he went to his pack and pulled out his first aid kit. "Those men who attacked us," Neji said quietly, "I recognized one of them, he was one of the guards from the palace, the one you called Goei."

Atenushi hissed as Neji began applying the bandages, "Was it really? Damn, we'll have to interrogate them and figure out what they wanted."

Neji nodded as he finished up, he looked up over to Naruto, who was investigating the bodies, making sure they were properly incapacitated, with Koneko tagging along at his side.

!-!-!-!-!

It didn't take much interrogation to get their answer out of Goei. After tying him up and waking him, he practically spat the answer at them. "I wanted to kidnap the brat to show you ninja that you weren't so though!"

Ataenushi gave a disappointed sigh, "I knew you were jealous of ninja, Goei, but I didn't think you would take it so far as to endanger to Lord's daughter." Goeis reply was a spit in the face.

"What a bastard," Naruto mumbled from his position off to the side with Koneko, "Not only did he turn on his country, but he was stupid enough to think that him and a group of samurai could take on ninja."

Koneko remained unusually quiet.

"Don't let it get to you," Naruto told her, still staring at the traitor samurai. "People like him, don't deserve for you to feel sad."

Koneko looked up at him and smiled, "You're really sexy when you're serious like that, Naruto-kun."

Naruto sighed and shook his head. "Naruto," Neji called him over, "Come on, the two of us are going to run back to the capital and lead the police here so they arrest these men."

"Will the old man be okay here by himself?" Naruto asked, speaking as if Ataenushi wasn't standing near him.

"We'll be fine by ourselves, Naruto-kun." Ataenushi answered with a chuckle. "The enemies are tied up and unconscious, there shouldn't be any problem."

"Come on," Neji beckoned him again, "We need to hurry so we don't lose too much time."

Naruto nodded, and the two of them took off, heading back to the Fire Countries Capital.

!-!-!-!-!

"_Should we do it now?" _

"_No, I want to wait, it'll be more interesting then."_

"_Someday, your bloodlust is going to get you killed."_

"_That's a strange thing for you to say."_

"_It's the truth."_


	9. Precious People!

Thanks to everyone who reviewd, added this story to thier alearts/favorites, or added this story to their C2.

* * *

Naruto and Neji returned at midday with a large police force following after them. Koneko and Ataenushi looked up from the meal they had been eating.

"Naruto-kun, Neji-kun!" Koneko squealed, standing up and rushing at the boys with her arms open. She was surprised as she found herself hugging nothing but air. The two ninja were now standing behind her.

A man in front of her chuckled, "Ninja are indeed quick," He said. Koneko took him to be the head of the police force.

"Your suspects are over there," Neji pointed, indicating the group of men tied up against a rock.

"Of course," The man said, signaling to his men to go forward and officially arrest them.

Ataenushi stood up, "Now that the officers are here, we should go."

Neji nodded, "We have already lost many hours, it would be best to leave now."

"Koneko, get your things," Ataenushi ordered the girl, who nodded and began to get ready. Meanwhile, the police force began loading the rouge samurai up on wagons and taking them back the way they came.

It didn't take long for everyone to get ready, and soon they were back on the path, heading towards their destination.

!-!-!-!-!

"Well, this is it." Ataenushi said as they stood at the entrance to a rather large city, "The last city before we reach the temple."

It had been a day since they had been attacked by the rouge samurai. Their travels since then had been uneventful, except for the confrontations caused by Koneko's behavior toward Naruto.

"We can make our stop here and find a hotel," Neji said, "Then we can make the rest of the journey tomorrow."

Koneko pouted, "Aw, isn't it sad, Naruto-kun, tomorrow will be our last day together."

"Yeah," Naruto drawled, "Sad."

Koneko latched onto the older boys arm, "We should find a way to spend the rest of the day together and have some fun." She looked around at Neji and Ataenushi, "All of us."

Ataenushi smiled, "Yeah, that wouldn't be such a bad idea."

"Whatever," Neji shrugged, "First we need to find a hotel, then you can do whatever you want."

"Yeah!" Koneko yelled.

!-!-!-!-!

"This isn't so bad, is it Naruto-kun?"

Naruto couldn't help but smile and nod as he slurped up some more ramen. "The ramen here is really good!" He answered once he had ate the noodles in his mouth.

"See," She cooed, "I told you we would have fun."

Naruto didn't answer this time, just continuing to slurp his ramen. They had found a hotel rather easily, and once they had all gotten settled in, Koneko had drug them out into the city, trying to find an activity they could all enjoy. She had eventually found a moderately sized ramen stand, much like Ichirakus back in Konoha.

At the moment, it was just the four of them eating. Koneko tried to chat Naruto up as he finished off bowl after bowl. Ataenushi watched the Konoha blond in amusement, and Neji sat a bit more off to the side, watching in mild disgust.

"Really, Naruto," The Hyuuga said, "Do you have to eat with such…_excitement_?"

Naruto looked up at the older teen, "Shub up," He said with a mouthful of noodles. Neji just shook his head as bits of food flew out the blonds mouth.

Koneko giggled, "You are so funny, Naruto-kun!" She squealed.

"Whateber," He said as he went back to stuffing his face.

Koneko sighed, and turned to the cook behind the counter, "Excuse me, sir." She said politely, "But is there a bathroom nearby?'

The old man shrugged, "I think the store next door has one." He said.

"Thank you," Koneko said with a slight bow. She stood up, "I'll be back in a minute boys." She excused herself. Ataenushi and Neji nodded as she left.

"Shudent be go wit er?" Naruto mumbled.

Neji sighed, "What?"

Naruto held up a hand, took a big gulp and swallowed a large lump of noodles, "Shouldn't we go with her?"

"A good idea, Naruto," Ataenushi said, "Just because we are having a bit of fun doesn't mean we should totally slack off."

As Ataenushi began to stand up Neji shook his head, "I am able to track her with my Byakugan." He said, "As long as she doesn't leave my range, everything is fine."

Ataenushi nodded, he turned back to his bowl of ramen when a scream sounded through the street. "KONEKO!" The older man dashed out of the stand.

"Wait!" Neji called after him, but the man was already gone. The white eyed teen stood up and went after him, dragging Naruto along.

Ataenushi dashed toward Konekos location, seeing her standing in front of a large man. He reached her and pushed her out of the way, pulling out a kunai and going for the mans neck. He was surprised when he found himself being held back, as Neji wrapped his arm around his neck from behind and Naruto stopped his arm.

"What are you two doing," Ataenushi seethed, "He was assaulting Koneko!"

"No," Neji spoke evenly and calmly, "He was offering her a kitten." Ataenushi looked down to see that the man was holding a small kitten clutched to his chest.

"But, she screamed," He looked down to the frightened girl still on the ground, "Why did you scream?"

"Be-because," She stuttered, "I like kittens."

Ataenushi loosened his grip on his kunai and it feel to the ground with a clatter. "I'm…I'm sorry," he apologized to the man, "I thought you were attacking her, I thought…" he paused, "I thought she was going to get hurt."

Naruto and Neji let loose their grips and Ataenushi turned and began to walk away. Neji watched him leave as Koneko pushed herself off the ground. "Naruto, stay with Koneko-san," He said, "I'll go talk to Ataenushi-san."

Naruto nodded as Neji took off after the man. Then, he helped Koneko stand and turned to the man, who seemed to be frozen with the kitten mewing against his chest. "Uh, I don't think we'll be taking that kitten."

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto and Koneko were quiet as they walked down a street in the entertainment district of the city. Bright lights flashed around them, various booths selling various things, offering the chance to play games for cheap prizes.

"Naruto-kun," Koneko said quietly, "What just happened?"

"Ataenushi almost killed an innocent man." He answered her bluntly.

"I know," She said, turning to him as they walked, "But why? He's usually so calm and collected. He never flies off the handle like that." She paused, "…His eyes scared me. He had the eyes of a killer."

Naruto shook his head, "Those weren't the eyes of a killer, those were the eyes of a man protecting something important."

"Important?" She questioned, "So, he was just doing his job?"

"No," Naruto replied, "He was protecting you from what he thought was a threat, because you are important to him."

"Oh," Koneko said softly. There was silence for a few moments, then she spoke again, "I…I've never really had a father."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "I thought the feudal lord was your father."

"He's never been a father to me," Koneko said, her face darkening slightly, "I've never been anything but a burden to him. No matter how hard I tried to impress him, it was never enough." Naruto watched her closely, noting that this was probably the first time he had truly seen her angry. "But," She continued, more softly this time, "Ataenushi was always there for me. He was the one who was always in charge of my protection."

Naruto nodded, "I never knew my father," He spoke, "But that doesn't mean I don't have one." Naruto said, a image of a tanned, scared face flashing through his mind. "He doesn't have to be related to you by blood to be family."

Koneko nodded slowly, "I think I understand," She said. Naruto smirked.

"Now, how about we play some games or something, I'm getting bored of just walking here."

!-!-!-!-!

Neji ran to catch up to Ataenushi. "Ataenushi-san," Neji said, "There is no reason to be upset."

"I was about to kill an innocent man," Ataenushi said, "Of course there is a reason to be upset."

"You were worried about Koneko-san," Neji replied, "Although your actions were rash, they are justified."

"I just," Ataenushi began, stopping and running his fingers through his graying hair, "I just didn't want her to get hurt. Last time I was almost too late, I didn't want that to happen again."

"I understand," Neji said, "I've seen the way the two of you act around each other, I know you have a strong bond with her. But, as a Ninja, you can't let that bond drive you too unnecessary actions, or there will be problems."

"Heh," Ataenushi sighed, "It's been a long time since I've read up on the ninja code."

"Ignorance is not an excuse," Neji said, "Now lets go, I left Naruto with Koneko, she's probably driving him crazy by now."

!-!-!-!-!

"Amazing, Naruto-kun!" Koneko squealed, as Naruto easily beat a simple street game, earning him the prize of a stuffed kitten. Koneko snatched the plush doll without asking and hugged it to her body. "I can't believe you won this for me."

Naruto watched her with a raised eyebrow, _I was actually planning on giving that to Sakura-chan, _he thought to himself, _But, I guess I could take the time to win another._

"'Ey kid," The man at the spoke to him. Naruto looked towards him questioningly, "You a ninja?"

Naruto tapped his headband with a smile, "Yep!"

"Then git outta here. I don't need you takin' up all my prizes."

"Pssh, whatever, old man, I'll just go somewhere else to win some prizes." Naruto said, leaving with Koneko in tow. The girl continued to coo over the stuffed kitten Naruto had won for her. As they walked Naruto sensed something behind them, he turned to look over his shoulder and his eyes widened. He grabbed Koneko and jumped to the side, causing the girl to scream as they crashed into the booth of a man selling decorative masks.

An explosive lightening strike tore than the street, ripping right through the spot where they had just been standing. "What the hell was that!" Koneko screamed.

"Stay down!" Naruto hissed. He raised his head to peak over the booth and saw a man standing in the middle of the street. Everyone was running around, screaming and panicking, but he stood still. He held a large war hammer in his hands and he had long blond hair down to his shoulder. The most distinguishing thing about him was his black cloak that had red clouds on it.

"Akatsuki!"


	10. Denkou Raihanma!

Thanks to anyone who reviewed or added this story to thier alearts, favorites, or c2's. If there are any problems with the formatting of this chapter, it's because the Document Manager was giving me problems again.

* * *

Naruto jumped out from behind the booth he had hidden behind with Koneko, stepping out into the street and facing the Akatsuki member, careful to watch the large rip that was caused by his attack. He looked around, seeing the surviving people on the street fleeing for safety. He also saw a few unlucky bodies lying motionless and charred from the lightening attack.

"And he comes out and shows himself," The large man said loudly in a deep voice, "I thought for a second there that I had gotten you with that attack."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Who the hell are you?" He growled out, his fist tightening.

"Me?" The man clarified, hoisting his large war hammer on his shoulder, "Who the hell do you think I am? I'm with Akatsuki."

Naruto growled again, he didn't need to hear anymore. He charged at the man for a head on attack. With a confident smirk, the older blond grabbed his hammer with both hands and held it over his head. Then, with a yell he brought it down, causing a bolt of lightening to emit from it and rip through the streets towards Naruto.

The Konoha ninjas eyes widened as the attack neared him. He barley managed to jump up, avoiding it as it tore through the street.

The hammer warrior swung his hammer again while Naruto was in mid air, causing an arc of lightening to cut towards him.

_Damn it!_ Naruto cursed to himself. He threw his arms out, rotating in mid air and spinning, barley being missed by the arc of lightening. Naruto managed to land on the rooftop of a small nearby building, looking behind him to make sure the booth he had left Koneko in was unharmed.

He began to run along the roofs approaching the Akatsuki ninja in a roundabout way, knowing now how foolish the direct attack would be. He jumped off the buildings and flipped over in mid air, unleashing a wave of shuriken as he did so. The blond Akatsuki member jumped backwards to dodge them, still keeping his eyes on Naruto as he landed on the ground and began another charge, sizing him up for another lightening strike.

Naruto reached the man, jumping up with a yell and preparing to deliver a punch to the much large mans face. With a smirk, the man swung his hammer, faster than Naruto had anticipated, and sent the blond flying into a building, then through it.

The large Akatsuki member guffawed. "Foolish little brat, none can stand up to the my Kujitogu!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Came multiple yells from all around him. He looked at the surrounding rooftops as a multiple shuriken bore down upon him.

"What the hell!" He cursed, jumping up and spinning around in a full circle, swinging his hammer as he did so, causing a full circle of electric energy to repel the shuriken. As he finished his spin, he found himself being assaulted by multiple Narutos. The blond copies each grabbed for the mans hammer trying to wrench it away from his grasp. "No way!" The man said. He performed a one handed seal and an electric shock went through the hammer, harming all of the Naruto clones but leaving him safe.

All the Narutos were blasted away by the electric pulse, blown into buildings where they then exploded into a could of smoke. The blond Akatsuki landed roughly on the ground, causing cracks to appear in the street.

"So, it's been clones this entire time." The Akatsuki assessed loudly. "Why don't you come out here and fight me for real?"

His answer was a whooshing sound as a large shuriken cut through air and hit his hammer, attempting to dislodge it from his grasp. He turned around, expecting to find Naruto, but instead found Neji rushing him with and opened palm strike to the chest.

The Akatsuki member fell backwards, coughing up blood as the chakra Neji used ripped through his chest and injured his vital organs. He hit the ground, his hammer coming loose from his hand. He looked up and saw a man, Ataenushi, coming down on him with a kunai in his hand.

With a bloody smile, the blond Akatsuki member kipped up, meeting Ataenushi with his feet and sending the older man back flying through the air. He quickly threw his hand out, causing his hammer to fly back to his hand just in time as Neji came to meet him with another assault.

Neji came to an immediate halt as the hammer was swung in his direction. He ducked the blow as a wave of electricity flew over his head. His eyes widened. I have to stick with close combat, he thought to himself, _If I get too far away he'll be able to get me with one of those lightening attacks._

Neji went of the offensive, attacking with high speed thrust and jabs, but his attacks were all dodged by the large blond. _Damn, I didn't think he would be this fast! Where the hell is Naruto?_

Neji's unasked question was answered by a hot blooded roar, as Naruto sailed into the blond Akatsuki's back feet first, sending him flying forward. The blond boy landed next to Neji in a crouched position, his eyes tinted red and his whiskers more defined.

The blond turned to Ataenushi, who was further down the street still pulling himself back together after his last attack, "Ataenushi," he shouted, "Koneko's back there in a booth, go get her out of here. We'll handle this."

The older man nodded and unsteadily made his way towards the direction indicated by Naruto. The two Konoha ninja watched as the blond Akatsuki member pushed himself off the ground, chuckling deeply as he did so. "So, this is the real Uzumaki Naruto?" He said, looking up at the two of them, "Really, so far you aren't meeting my expectations."

"Shut up, you bastard!" Naruto seethed.

The man chuckled some more, "So, you're using the Kyuubi chakra? That must mean you are serious. Now the odds are two on one, and I'm fighting a Jinchuriki, looks like I'll have to get serious also." He hoisted his hammer up into a fighting position, "But, before I smash your heads in with my Kujitogu here, I'll introduce my self." He gave the two of them a mock bow, "Denkou Raihanma, former member of Hidden Cloud Village and current powerhouse of the organization known as Akatsuki." Raihanma stood back up from his bow, once again standing with his hammer in the ready position. "Shall we begin?"

!-!-!-!-!

Ataenushi ran to the direction Naruto had indicated, throwing a look over his shoulder as the fight between Naruto, Neji, and the large Akatsuki member began. "Koneko-san!" He cried out, "Where are you?"

"Ataenushi-kun?" He turned in her direction, seeing her poke her head out from behind a booth.

"Koneko!" He cried running to her, "Come on, we have to get out of here quickly." The girl nodded, a fearful look in her eyes.

"Who is that man, Ataenushi? Why did he attack us?" She asked, as she hopped out from behind the stand and began running down the street with the older man.

"I don't know," Was his answer, "But we have to get out of here quickly, I don't know if Naruto and Neji will be able to hold him off."

Koneko suddenly stopped, "Naruto-kun," She said quietly, watching the fight that raged on behind them, "We can't leave them here, they could get killed."

Ataenushi pulled the girl by her hand, tugging her down the street, "Come on, Koneko!" He said, "We don't have time to worry about them, they're ninja, they can handle themselves!" She continued to watch as Naruto narrowly avoided a hammer strike. "Koneko," The man said in an urgent tone, turning the girl around to face him, "If we stay here, you are going to get hurt. I don't want you to get hurt."

The girls face softened as she looked up at the older man, "Ataenushi…" She said quietly. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Get out of the way!" She shouted, taking the man off guard as she pushed him to the ground.

Ataenushi fell to the ground, and things seemed to slow down for him. As he fell, he had a chance to look behind him and see a strange half-man, half-plant creature in the ground, a kunai in it's hand. He watched in slow motion as the bizarre creature launched the kunai, targeting where he had just been standing.

But he wasn't standing there anymore.

Koneko had pushed him out of the way, but she hadn't had time to throw herself to the ground. So, the attack that was meant for Ataenushi, ended up piercing Koneko's chest.

Ataenushi could vaguely see the look on Koneko's face as the kunai pierced her chest. Her eyes going wide, her mouth opening in shock.

The older mans eyes also went wide as he finally hit the ground and time seemed to go back to normal. He watched in numb shock as the girl crumpled to the ground with a soft thud. She was quiet for a few seconds as she lay on the ground, bleeding.

Then she started screaming.

The screaming knocked Ataenushi out of his shock. He pushed himself off the ground and crawled over to the girls position. He watched her in utter helplessness as she writhed on the ground, screaming and grabbing at the weapon lodged in her chest.

The older man didn't even notice the plant Akatsuki behind him sinking back into the ground.

He stared at her, at the blood, at the kunai. His whole body began to shake. His jaw trembled.

He looked up at the sky and opened his mouth wide.

"KONEKO!"

!-!-!-!-!


	11. Nekomata!

One month. 21 Alerts. 13 Favorites. 2 c2's. 7,443 Hits. 16 Reviews. 10 Chapters.Around 29,000 Words. And I'm not even close to being done. Thanks to everyone.

I would like to dedicate this chapter to: AisCrim, Alchemy202, ANBU captain Itachi, Bandit Ken, Cyber-Porygon, Endolphins, garhoasa, GotenXiao, Hanyon Rakuen, Inverness, Jinchuriki-Uzumaki-Naruo, Kai Dragoon, **Kyubbi-Sama**, Moccanime, MouthFullofCity, **Narutorules**, NisseLind, PuckReathof, TragicallyLate, Whoozawatta, **Xizor 159**, Aurora Maryte, Elicit, Mierin Eronaile, Monkeymandb, PyroSkitzo, The Black Goblin, The Silver Goddess Alchemist, XerxesZ, tmp987, Seraph-Ryuujin, sonic, DarkMan, Cornpuffs, Miako, AJ, and NaRuTo LuVer FoReV.

All the above people have supported this story in someway and have given me the encouragement needed to keep writing. Bolded means they are extra cool.

* * *

"_KONEKO!"_

Naruto paused in mid-stirke as he attempted to hit Raihanma with a Rasengan. He looked down the street, towards the scream and his enemy took advantage of his momentary distraction.

"Naruto!" Neji exclaimed as the large Akatsuki member swung his hammer, connecting with Narutos torso and sending the smaller blond flying backwards and through a wall. Unfortunately, it wasn't a kage bunshin this time.

Neji charged the large man, throwing a palm forward, _"Hakke Kuushou!" _The invisible force hit the large man dead in the chest causing him to stumble backwards. _Damn it, _Neji cursed to himself. He threw both his hands out and repeated his shout, _"HAKKE KUUSHOU!" _This time he succeeded in knocking his enemy off his feet and sending him down the street.

With the large man momentarily disabled, the Hyuuga ran towards the hole in the wall. He spotted his comrade on the ground, struggling against the large pile of debris on top of him. "Naruto!" Neji exclaimed, rushing to the blond and helping him up. "Can you walk?"

Naruto stood, holding onto his ribs as he did so. His clothes were slightly singed and his hair was more spiky than normal, leading Neji to assume that Raihanma had packed electric force into the blow.

"We have to get out of here," Naruto said, taking a few unsteady steps forward, "We can't win against this guy, and something is wrong with that old man, I heard him scream."

Neji nodded, "That large man will be back soon," He said, "Do you think you can run?"

Naruto just nodded. The two of them ran out of the hole in the building, each taking a look back to see that Raihanma was already back on his feet, raising his hammer above his head. Naruto didn't notice, but Neji could see the electricity in the air crackling about the Akatsuki member, he could also see the large amount of chakra the man was building.

"Naruto!" Neji shouted, "His next attack is going to be huge, get to Ataenushi-san and Koneko-san and get them off this street, I'm going to try and parry it!"

Naruto looked over to him and nodded, focusing more chakra in his legs and dashing forward to Ataenushi, ignoring the constant pain in his ribs. Neji skidded to a stop, turning around and facing Raihanma, already beginning to glow slightly as he exuded chakra from his pores.

He could make out the smile on the large mans face as he brought his hammer down. "HA!"

Neji eye's widened at the size of the attack. The lightening barreled down the street, ripping up and ground and even destroying the shops and booths along the street. With an uncertain determination in his eyes, Neji began to spin,

"_KAITEN!"_

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto quickly arrived on Ataenushis location. As soon as he saw the older man on the ground over Koneko's body he became worried. He stopped in his tracks as he saw the kunai imbedded in the girls chest, then he could hear her crying, which was steadily becoming weaker and weaker.

At Naruto's approach, Ataenushi turned around, his eyes red and leaking tears. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but noting came out but a strangled cry of grief.

Naruto couldn't help but stand and look in shock. He slowly turned to look over his shoulder and saw that the Akatsuki member was about to attack. Seeing that was enough to temporarily knock him out of his shock. He dashed forward, grabbing Ataenushi and scooping up Koneko, trying his best to be careful of her wound. He summoned as much chakra into his legs as possible and jumped. He flew up as Raihanma started his attack, flying over a building and into the alleyway behind it. He safely landed, trying not to jostle his injured cargo.

He heard a large boom from the street, which caused the surrounding buildings to rock. Naruto ignored the explosion, setting both Koneko and Ataenushi down. He immediately began to inspect the girls wound, and a deep frown creased his face. He looked up to Ataenushi, "Th-" He began uneasily, he had to stop and swallow the lump in this throat, "There's nothing I can do."

Ataenushi stared at Naruto for a few seconds, showing no reaction, then he completely broke down, sobbing over the young girls blood soaked form. Naruto stood up and watched the sobbing man in sorrow.

His fist began to shake.

He could feel his sorrow begin to turn to anger, and he could feel the red chakra flow through his veins.

Suddenly, his anger stopped.

With wide eyes, he dropped back down to his knees, pushing in closely to look at the young girls wound. He could faintly see wisps of yellow energy emerging from the stab wound. "…Chakra?" Naruto breathed quietly to himself.

As if it had been waiting to be acknowledged, the yellow energy began to grow as it surrounded the girls wound. With wide eyes Naruto pulled the kunai from the girls chest, eliciting a shocked reaction from Ataenushi. "What a-are you d-d-doing?"

"Look!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing to the yellow glow that was now taking over the girls wound. Ataenushi peered at it in confusion, and then amazement as he saw the girls wound stop bleeding and begin stitching itself back together.

"H-how is this possible?" The man questioned, drying his tears.

"I don't know," Naruto answered grinning slightly. _But the way that heals, it does seem kind of familiar._ The wound healed quickly and the yellow glow dissipated, leaving a fresh patch of unmarred skin.

"Ko-konkeo-san?" Ataenushi spoke to the girl softly. Slowly her eyes fluttered open, and she looked at the two men surrounding her. Her eyes widened and she quickly sat up, checking her wound.

"I'm okay?" She asked. She didn't get an answer as Ataenushi launched himself at her, giving her a tight hug. Naruto grinned and stood up as he watched to two embrace.

"Naruto," A voice sounded from behind him. The blond turned around and saw Neji limping down the alley. Naruto raised an eyebrow at him.

"You okay," He asked.

"My _Kaiten_ couldn't fully repel his attack, there was a small explosion, luckily the other man took the brunt of it." Neji looked over Naruto's shoulder at the embracing pair. "Koneko-san is okay."

Naruto nodded, "I'll explain later, we need to get the hell out of here."

"Yes," Neji agreed, "I saw the local police force on my way here, hopefully they will be able to deter the enemy long enough for us to put some distance between us."

Naruto nodded, "Come on, you two," He spoke to the still embracing pair. "We need to get out of here." Ataenushi nodded and broke the hug, he stood and then helped Koneko stand up. The feudal lords daughter stood for a few seconds before collapsing.

"Koneko!" Ataenushi exclaimed.

"She must be dizzy from blood lost," Naruto commented. Neji raised an eyebrow at the blond, seeing for the first time the blood splattered on his orange jacket. Further inspection by the Hyuuga revealed that he was the only one with blood that wasn't his own on him.

"No!" Koneko whispered fearfully, she looked up to Ataenushi, "It's _it, _Ataenushi-kun! _It!"_

The older mans eyes widened, he quickly pulled his pack off his back and dug through it, only to come up empty. "I left the pills in the hotel," He whispered quietly. He turned to the Konoha ninja, "We need to go back to the hotel!"

The two of them shook their heads, "There's no way we are going back out there, we have got to get out of here while we have the time."

"No you don't understand-"

"Shut up, old man," Naruto interrupted, "Unless you really want the girl to die, we have to leave now." Ataenushi stopped. "Good," Naruto continued, "I'll carry Koneko," Naruto said, walking over to the girl and picking her up, shifting her onto his back for a piggy back ride. The girl didn't protest, in fact she seemed quieter than usual, her face twisted slightly in pain. He looked over to Neji, "Can you run?"

Neji nodded, "How about you?"

Naruto patted his slightly sore ribs, "I heal fast." He turned to Ataenushi, "What about you, can you run?" The older man nodded, looking apprehensively at Koneko. "Good," Naruto said, "Lets get the hell out of here."

!-!-!-!-!

They got out of the city with no problems, running at top speed, using Ataenushi as a guide. They were now jumping through a patch of forest that Ataenushi had told they would need to cut through. So far, they had had no contact with the enemy, but that was about to change.

"We're being followed." Neji stated calmly as he looked over his shoulder.

Naruto turned to look at him, "By who?"

"The same man from the city, he just entered the forest, but he's traveling at a speed slower than ours, so we should be able to out run him."

"Should we start going faster just incase?" Naruto questioned.

Neji looked over to Ataenushi, who nodded. Neji then turned to Naruto and nodded. All three of them picked up the speed, flying through the tree tops.

!-!-!-!-!

All three men dropped to the ground, Naruto still carrying Koneko. They had been running for hours, and had finally put enough distance between them and the enemy to allow for a brief break to recuperate. Naruto gently laid Koneko out on the ground. She had fallen asleep on his back, despite the fact that he had been urgently jumping from tree to tree at high speeds. He couldn't blame her, though. He knew from experience how healing yourself from life threatening injuries could be tiring.

After laying the girl down, he walked over to where Neji and Ataenushi were standing. "I think it's time we all talk," Ataenushi spoke once the blond had arrived.

Neji nodded, "Like about why you and Koneko-san are covered in blood, but neither of you are hurt."

"Koneko-san," Ataenushi began uneasily, "She was stabbed."

Neji raised his brow, and Naruto nodded to support the mans story. "Stabbed? But she's fine now."

"She healed herself somehow," Naruto said for Ataenushi. "I didn't think anyone but me could heal that fast."

Neji's eyebrow really went up at that. "You mean she could heal as fast as you?" Naruto nodded. The Hyuuga turned back to Ataenushi, "There's something your not telling us."

Ataenushi nodded, "Yes, but first I would like to know who that man chasing us is, and who the man who attacked Koneko was."

"The man with the hammer is with Akatsuki." Naruto said softly, "The man who attack Koneko probably is too."

"Akatsuki?" Ataenushi questioned.

"A group of people who hunt people like me. Junchuuriki. Those with a demon sealed in them." Naruto answered, "They must have attacked us to get at me."

"De-demon?" Ataenushi inquired apprehensively.

Neji nodded, "But they didn't attack us because of you, Naruto." Neji said, he turned and gave Ataenushi a strong look, "Did they?"

Ataenushi shook his head and sighed, "No. They came after Koneko."

"Wh-what?" Naruto sputtered.

"Yes," He answered hollowly, "Koneko has the two tailed demon sealed inside her. The Nekomata."

Naruto turned to look at the sleeping girl. "So that's how she healed herself."

Ataenushi nodded, "Koneko." He began, "Koneko had the demon sealed in her when she was young. It was after the 'The Third Secret World War' and the Hidden Village of Stone was looking for a way to increase their strength after their defeat at the hands of Konoha. But Konoha heard about their plans for a Jinchuuriki, and sent out a team of ninja to stop them. I was on that team. We got there too late. The sealing was already done. So, instead of stopping the sealing like we were supposed to, we had to go to our second objective: Kill the jinchuuriki."

He paused momentarily and looked over to Koneko.

"But we couldn't do it, she was just a baby. So, instead we decided to hand the baby over to the feudal lord, trusting his judgment of the situation. The feudal lord and his wife had never been able to have children, and the instant his wife laid eyes on the baby, she fell in love with it. The feudal lord decided to 'adopt' the baby, and keep it as his own. He claimed that he would raise her away from the ninja world and she would never be a danger. But, when she turned ten something happened, she started exhibiting strange behavior."

He paused again, leaving Neji to urge him on, "Like what?"

"She started attacking and killing small animals, and then eventually started attacking her attendants. When we finally got someone to look at her, they realized that her seal was messed up. The person who had performed the original sealing when she was a child had done it wrong, and the Nekomata was starting to take over her mind. We got the man to fix the sealing and everything was fine, until she started exhibiting the same behavior the next year. That time we decide to take her to some professionals who owned a temple in a valley."

"So that's why we are heading to the temple?" Naruto questioned, "To fix her seal?"

Ataenushi nodded, "We've been making this trip since she was eleven, but we've never encountered this kind of trouble before."

"Is that why she is unconscious right now?" Neji asked, "Because of the Nekomatas effect?"

"Yes," Ataenushi answered, "Usually I have bag of pills I can give her that suppress the effects, but I left those in the hotel. I believe that since she used the Nekomatas chakra to heal herself, she may fall under the effects faster. If we don't hurry, she could become completely possessed by the demon." He continued, his voice becoming more and more urgent.

Neji looked back the way they had come from. "Our enemy is catching up." He said, "We really should leave now."

Naruto nodded, going over to Koneko and picking her up and carrying her on his back. With a nod, all three men took back into the tree tops, heading towards the temple. All of them filled with a sense of urgency as they now knew just how desperate the situation was.

!-!-!-!-!

"Ataenushi!" Neji called out to the older man, "How much farther?"

"We should be getting there shortly." He answered, "We will be arriving at a cliff, and then once we climb to the bottom we will be at the temple."

Neji nodded. So far, they had been able to continue their journey with no problem. They were all getting tired, after running for so long, but they were still holding together. Neji looked back over his shoulder, using the extended range of his Byakugan to see their approaching enemy. He was still far off, but unlike them he wasn't slowing down any.

Suddenly, Neji spotted something using the 360 degree view of his Byakugan. "Naruto, watch out!" The blond turned to him in confusion. He landed on another branch and accidentally tripped the trip wire Neji had tried to warn him about. Kunai flew from all the surrounding trees, causing Naruto's eyes to widen as he jumped to the ground, narrowly avoiding the trap.

He landed on the ground roughly, trying not to drop Koneko. Ataenushi and Neji landed next to him. "What the hell was that!" The blond cursed.

"A trap," Neji answered bluntly, examining the surrounding area. "They are all around us, in the treetops."

"What?" Ataenushi exclaimed.

"Yes," Neji nodded with a sigh, "It looks like we've ran right into a trap. The enemy chasing us didn't want to catch up with us, he wanted to lead us here."

Naruto looked around, suddenly on guard. He was the first to see it. The…thing , seemingly half-plant and half-man, rose out of the ground. "What the hell is that?"

Both Neji and Ataenushi turned the half-plant Akatsuki member. "He," Ataenushi began, "He's the one who nearly killed Koneko-san."

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed, "We can't fight him here, we're too tired and we're running out of time."

"Correct, Naruto-kun." The plant man said, "It would be best if you and Koneko-chan came with us willingly, instead of causing unnecessary confrontations."

"Shut up, bas-!" Naruto began to growl, but was cut off but Ataenushi.

"Get out of here, Naruto-san, Neji-san." The older man said, "I'll take care of this."

"What the hell can you do?" Naruto shouted at the older man as he charged the plant man. Both Naruto and Neji were surprised as Ataenushi showed speed neither of them though he was capable of, blurring around the plant man and wrapping his arms around him from behind, forming a seal with two hands.

Neji's eyes widened. "Naruto, we have to get out of here quickly!"

Naruto shook his head, "No way! What the hell is he doing!"

"A suicide attack," Was Neji's answer as he grabbed Naruto and pulled him along, "And if we don't get out of here, it will kill us too."

Naruto's eyes widened as he began to run alongside Neji.

"_JISATSU BATSU NO JUTSU!"_

Naruto looked back as he heard the shout. He saw the explosion, ripping through Ataenushi and the plant man, and then spreading out and burning toward them. "We have to run faster!" Naruto shouted as the explosion began to eat at their heels. They broke through the tree line and came upon a cliff. With no time to stop, the two of them knew what they had to do. They each jumped and fell and the fire from the explosion ate thought the air above their heads.

As they fell through the air, Naruto bit his finger, quickly forming hand seals. _"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!"_

The two of them stopped falling through the air as they found themselves on the back of a large frog. Gamabunta made a noise of surprise as he found himself falling through the air. He landed roughly on the ground, but his large size prevented him from getting hurt. "What the hell is going on!"

"No time to explain, Boss!" Naruto said as he jumped off the toads head. Neji followed, giving the giant toad a glance over the back of his shoulder as he did so. The two of them took a quick moment to look around before they saw the temple. They rushed to it quickly, met by confused monks once they got there.

Naruto took the girl off his back without a word and presented her to the monks. "Koneko-san?" One of the monks questioned, taking the girl from Naruto. The two Konoha ninja nodded as the girl was carried into the temple by a bunch of worried monks, leaving them alone outside. They turned to each other without a word.

They shared a look.

And simultaneously fainted.


	12. Return!

Thanks to everyone who reviewd or added this story to their alerts/favorites/c2.

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Raihanma slowly stepped into the scorched clearing before him. The blackened remains of trees were pockmarked all throughout the area. In the middle of the area was a scorched and torn up body.

"Hmm," The large Akatsuki member hummed to himself, "Is it possible that my partner was actually destroyed?"

"Do not get your hopes up." Came his answer. He watched as his partner pulled himself out of the ground, a dead look in his all white eyes.

The large man chuckled, "'Don't get your hopes up?'" He quoted, "I was worried about you, partner."

"Of course you were." The plant-man said with a nod. He turned away from his partner and looked to the destroyed body laying on the ground. "**Now leave us.**" A deeper more sadistic voice sounded, not coming from the man, but from the plant around him, "**We need to feed.**"

"Like I would want to stand around and watch something as disgusting as that." Raihanma mumbled as he began to walk away. "Oh, by the way," He stopped, causing the plant-man to turn away from his victim, "I contacted the leader and told him the situation while you were over here playing possum and he doesn't want us to continue pursuing the girl at the moment, some crap about not exposing ourselves further."

The plant-man nodded, once again lowering himself to his victim. "Understood."

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto slowly blinked his eyes open. He slowly looked around, seeing a white room full of beds. Only one of the other beds was occupied, and that was by the sleeping form of Hyuuga Neji.

"You're finally awake." A voice next to him startled him. He looked over to see Koneko sitting on the other side of his bed, looking down on him with a friendly smile.

Naruto pushed himself up in the bed and stretched with a groan, "How long have I been asleep?" He asked her.

"Almost an entire day," She giggled, "You must have been really tired."

Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his head, "We had to do a lot of running while you were sleeping," Suddenly he remembered something, he took another look around the room and confirmed that the only other person in the room was Neji. When he looked back to Koneko, he saw that her eyes were cast down.

"Naruto-kun," She began slowly, "Ataenushi-kun didn't make it, did he?"

Naruto also cast his eyes down and shook his head, "No," He answered softly, "He sacrificed himself to save you. We thought we weren't going to make it, we were all tired and cornered, and he stepped up and saved us. Saved you."

"So, I shouldn't feel sad, right?" She questioned in a choked voice, "Be-because he sacrificed himself to save me, right? Because I was important to him, right?" As she continued to speak her voice became more choked, and Naruto could see tears dropping out of her downcast eyes. She looked up at him, giving him a full look at her tear clouded yellow eyes, "Right, Nartuo-kun?"

Naruto opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.

"Be-because even though I shouldn't feel sad, I can't help it!" She said, full on crying now, "Because e-even though he sacrificed himself to save me, I would still rather have him here with me!" She buried her face in her hands and began to sob.

"To, to not feel sad," Naruto began quietly, "Would be dishonoring his sacrifice." The girl looked up at the somber blond, "Feeling sad for him shows that you miss him, that you love him, which means that he didn't sacrifice himself in vain." Naruto gave her a small grin, "That old man, he was a great guy."

Koneko smiled tearfully, "…Na-Naruto-kun!" She cried launching herself at the blond boy and wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. Naruto didn't fight her off this time, he just slowly returned her hug and let her cry on his shoulder.

!-!-!-!-!

"Are you sure we are no longer required?" Neji asked the head monk of the temple, as he and Naruto prepared to leave and head back to Konoha.

"We are sure," The man spoke politely, "We have received word from the feudal lord and he has requested that Koneko-san stay with us for safety purposes."

"If that is the feudal lords wish." Neji said with a bow, Naruto copied the Hyuuga actions. Both ninja were surprised when they found the monks bowing low to them.

"Um," Naruto muttered out the side of his mouth, "Are they supposed to be doing that?"

"We wish to express deep gratitude to you for protecting Koneko-san." The lead monk said, "After nearly four years, she has become like family to us. We would have been terribly sad had she not survived her trip."

Neji opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto beat him to it, "Hey, no problem old man. If I'm going to become Hokage someday, what kind of man would I be if I didn't protect helpless girls?"

The monks chuckled as Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"Naruto-kun." Naruto looked over to see a blushing Koneko giggling. The girl bowed to them, surprising Naruto, who had been expecting to get glomped, "Thank you so much." She turned to Neji, "And you too, Neji-kun."

Both ninja returned her bow with a grin. "We should get going," Neji said, "Hokage-sama probably expected us back sooner."

"Yeah, well we wouldn't have taken so long if you hadn't been passed out for so long." Naruto said with a teasing grin.

The Hyuuga just glared at the blond as the monks chuckled.

With a sigh, Neji shook his head and began to walk away. Naruto followed with a grin, as they headed back to their home Village.

"Be careful!" Koneko called after them.

!-!-!-!-!

"So…" Tsunade began slowly, rubbing her temples, "Akatsuki again?"

"Yep," Naruto nodded.

The Hokage groaned, even when she tried to keep the kid out of trouble, trouble always seemed to find him. _I don't need this, _she groaned internally, _With the Chuunin exams coming up, and trying to keep the destruction of Kyanon a secret, I really don't need the extra stress._

"But, the girl got to the location safely, right?" Tsunade inquired.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Neji answered, "She reached the temple safely, although the head guard of the daimyo's palace was lost in battle."

"Unfortunate," Tsunade mumbled, "But your mission was completed. You can collect your payment at the job desk." The two ninja eyed their Hokage with raised brows. "What?" She asked, "You did your mission, you delivered your report. Get out of here."

"Whatever," Naruto shrugged. He got up from the Hokage's desk and made his way to the door. He stretched his arm out to open the door when it opened for him. The blond raised an eyebrow, staring at the old man in front of him. He had bandages over his eye, and seemed to be missing an arm. He walked through the door, leaning heavily on his walking stick.

"Excuse me, young man," He said, pushing past Naruto. The blond watched as the man walked up to the Hokages desk and sat down, causing Tsunade to become even more annoyed, if that were even possible. Naruto looked to Neji, who showed no sign of recognition towards the man. With a shrug, Naruto left the Hokage's office, seeing more ANBU guards outside it than usual. As Neji followed him out and shut the door behind him, Naruto faintly heard Tsunade greet the old man.

"Greetings, Danzou-san."

Naruto stopped and turned back to the door, eliciting a questioning look from Neji. Naruto eyed the two extra ANBU guards stationed at the door. Although he couldn't see their faces, he knew they were glaring at him.

"What's the matter, Naruto?" Neji asked.

"Nothing," Naruto said with a shake of the head, "Let's just go get paid."

!-!-!-!-!

After Neji and Naruto had gotten paid, the two had split up. Neji had went to go do something, Naruto wasn't really sure what. Naruto, however, had gone and done the only thing that seemed reasonable to him after getting treated to such a large paycheck.

He had paid Ichirakus a visit.

Currently, he sat at the ramen bar, waiting not so patiently for the old man behind the counter to cook his third bowl.

"Hurry up, old man," Naruto whined, "You're taking too long."

"Sorry kid," The old man apologized, "You were gone for nearly a week, I think I got too used to not having you around again."

"Whatever, just cook the damn ramen."

The old man scoffed and mumbled something about ungrateful brats.

Naruto hungrily watched as his ramen was cooked, and didn't even notice when another patron entered the small stand.

"Naruto!" Came an exclamation from behind followed by a painful punch to the head that sent his blond head slamming into the counter in front of him.

"Oww," Naruto winced, gripping the back of his head and looking up at his attacker. He was met by the sight of a pretty face marred with anger, topped off by pink hair. "Sakura-chyaan," Naruto whined, "What did you hit me for?"

"Like you don't know!" Sakura scoffed.

"No," Naruto grimaced, "I don't."

"You run off for a week and don't even tell me?" She accused, "Why wouldn't I be pissed?"

Naruto looked up at her with a questioning gaze, cocking his head to the side, "…I didn't tell you I was leaving on a mission?"

"No!" She seethed.

"…Oh," the boy said lamely, "Well, uh, I went on a mission with Hyuuga Neji and-"

"I know all that now," She said, sitting down on the stool next to him with her arms crossed and a hostile look on her face, "I got Tsunade-shishou to tell me."

"Then why did you have to hit me?" Naruto inquired, still holding the back of his head.

"Because _you _should have told me!" She said harshly.

"Oh," Naruto paused, "…Okay."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. The cook behind the counter chuckled.

"Um…" Naruto began, at a loss for words, "…Sorry?" He offered.

Sakura sighed, but some of the hostility melted off her face. "…That'll work… I guess."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, but decided not to say anymore. The pink haired girl stood up to leave. "Wait," Naruto said, grabbing onto her arm, "Erm…Why don't you stay, and I can buy you some ramen?"

Sakura sighed again. "I can't" she answered, annoyed, " I have to wake up early in the morning for a meeting with Tsunade-shishou."

Without a wave or a 'Goodbye' Sakura left the ramen stand.

Naruto rubbed his sore head again. The cook set a bowl of ramen in front of him with a grin. "You've got a lot to learn, kid."

"Geez," Naruto groaned, picking up his chopsticks, "Women are troublesome."

"Don't steal my line, idiot." A voice interrupted him, causing him to flinch involuntary. But, the masculine sound of the voice eased Naruto, assuring him he wasn't about to get pounded in the head. He turned around to see the lazy persona of Nara Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru?" Naruto questioned, "I didn't know you liked ramen."

"I don't," Shikamaru sighed, "I just heard your loud voice echoing down the street, and figured I would see what you were up to."

"Bluh?" Naruto questioned, his mouth full of ramen noodles.

Shikamaru sighed again, "You weren't even paying attention, were you?" Naruto just shrugged, swallowing the noodles in his mouth and slurping up some more. "…Disgusting." Shikamaru said.

Naruto finished slurping his noodles, and with a clear mouth he said: "You look more annoyed than normal, Shikamaru. What's up?"

"It's the Hokage," The Nara boy said, sighing yet again, "I spent all that time working on the Chuunin exam, and it was all a waste."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Whuh?" He asked around a mouthful of noodles, "Nu mo echam?"

"Swallow your food, idiot." Shikamaru said in a disgusted tone.

Naruto did as he was told, and spoke again, "No more exam?"

"No," Shikamaru shook his head, "There's still going to be an exam, it's just going to be done with the Hidden Cloud, not with the Hidden Sand."

"O rly?" Naruto questioned, once again having a mouth full of noodles.

"God damn it!" Shikamaru groaned in annoyance, "Stop eating."

Naruto swallowed the rest of his noodles and pushed his now empty bowl away from him. "Why is it going to be with the Hidden Cloud?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "Some peace agreement, or something. I'm not really sure, the Hokage is holding a meeting in the morning for everyone involved."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Meeting? She didn't tell me about any meeting."

Shikamaru stood up with a shrug, "Then maybe you aren't invited, or something. Whatever. See you later."

"Yeah." Naruto said, giving the lazy teen a wave. He rubbed his chin in thought. _I wonder why she wouldn't invite me to a meeting? I have to participate in the exam, after all. Well, I guess I'll just have to wake up in the morning and go to the meeting anyways. _He paused in his thoughts and looked at the bowl in front of him. _But first…_

"Old man! Another bowl!"


	13. Meeting!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed or added this story to their alerts or favorites.

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_

_He stood in a dark hallway, the exit was behind him shining a scarce amount of light. But he didn't care about the exit, at least not yet. There was someone in the hallway. He couldn't see them, but he knew they were there._

"_Sasuke!" He shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls all around him. He stood still in the darkness, barley able to see in front of him with the light provided by the exit. He waited for an answer, for any sign that Sasuke was there._

"_What do you want, idiot?" Came his answer, a bare whisper floating on the wind._

"_Sasuke?" He cried again, "What are you doing here, why wont you come back with me?"_

_His cry once again echoed off the walls, leaving him alone momentarily with his own voice. It was longer this time before Sasuke answered, and it was even quieter than before, "I don't want to come back."_

_He growled to himself. He tried to take a step forward, but he was surprised at how hard it was to move just his one leg. "Why the hell not!" He shouted, taking another step forward, finding it even harder than the first._

_He waited once again for a response, "Because this is what I want." He strained his ears, barely hearing the answer. Truthfully, he wasn't even sure he heard anything at all._

"_Why?" He shouted again, "Why do you want this? Why wont you let me help you?"_

_He began trying to walk again, his breath growing heavier as it took more and more effort each step. By the time Sasukes answer came, he was fully plunged in darkness, the light of the exit nothing but a distant speck. "What makes you think I need your help?"_

_It was his turn to answer a question, "Because," He began, taking another step, "Because," Another step, "Because," Another step, "BECAUSE," One more step, and he collapsed, exhausted from walking along the hallway. "Because I'm your friend." He answered softly, his voice muffled by the floor below him._

"…_And what makes you think I need your friendship?"_

_He looked up, startled. He saw two floating orbs in the darkness. Red orbs, with dark circles and three dark dots. "Sasuke!" He exclaimed trying to push himself up. He collapsed to the ground again as Sasuke stepped closer to him._

"_I don't need you friendship." Sasuke answered his own question, "I don't need your help. I choose to come here, and here is where I'll stay." The floating red orbs moved closer and dropped down, peering into his face, "And if you can't accept that, then you can just die."_

_His own eyes went wide, as his fist clenched at his side. His whole body began to shake as his anger took over him. "I wont accept it," he growled, successfully pushing himself off the ground, "And I wont die." He continued, meeting the red eyes in the darkness with a pair of red eyes of his own. "I'll bring you back." He growled, fully standing up as the dark hallway was bathed in a red light. Sasuke stepped back, all that was visible of him was his outline, bathed in red._

_Sasuke continued stepping back, trying to get away from him, but he kept following him. No longer finding it hard to walk._

_Sasukes eyes-the only part of him that was fully visible in the red light-widened, "Stay away from me, idiot."_

"_I'll bring you back!" he shouted, "Whether you like it or not!"_

_Sasuke stepped back with a gasp, but his gasp was cut short, as the large paw of a fox came down on him, squishing him with a wet whump._

_He stared with his own red eyes wide. He looked up, following the red fox paw up to a red fox leg, which led to a red fox torso. On one end of the foxes torso was nine tails, waving erratically behind him. On the other end of the fox was an average fox head, which was looking down on him with a maniacal grin._

_The fox opened it's mouth._

"_Hey, kid."_

_!-!-!-!-!_

He slowly blinked his eyes open, staring up at the dull white ceiling above him. He knew where he was. He knew Sasuke wasn't there, neither was the Kyuubi. This wasn't the first time he had dreamt about Sasuke, and he knew it wasn't going to be the last.

He sat up, running his hand up along his face and threw his hair with a sigh. He quietly swung his legs over the edge of his bed, placing his feet on the ground and standing up. He stretched with a groan, his body emitting a cracking sound as he popped a few sleepy joints.

He gazed out of the corner of his blue eyes and looked at his bedroom clock, it read nearly eleven PM. _So much for sneaking into that early meeting. _He thought to himself ruefully.

He padded over to his closet, opening the door and gazing at the large mass of orange clothes within. He quickly stuck his hand in, pulling out a few garments and throwing them on without really thinking about it. One of the plus sides of having your clothes all be the same color was that you didn't have to worry about matching.

He walked out of his small bedroom fully dressed. He took a few minutes to chug down some milk and eat a cup of instant ramen before heading out the door and making his way towards the training fields.

He didn't really feel like going to that meeting anymore, anyway.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto stood in the middle of a familiar training field. He was crouched low in a fighting stance, surrounded by clones of himself. His head band had dropped down from it usual place on his forehead and was now stationed over his eyes, blinding him.

His ears twitched slightly as he heard one of his clones take a step forward. With a grin he kicked his foot back, kicking up dirt and flinging it into the clones eyes. He heard said clone stumble back with a curse, but his movement had spurred the other clones into action.

He ducked as he heard one clone coming for him, grinning more in satisfaction when the air whisking above head signified he had successfully dodged the first attack. He swung his leg out, tripping the clone up.

He rolled to the side as the _tap, tap, tap _of feet signaled another clone attack.

He pushed himself up onto all fours and launched himself into the air as two more clones converged on his position. He twirled in mid air and unleashed a barrage of shuriken. His grin fell into a grimace as the sound of metal burrowing into earth announced that his shuriken had missed their target.

As he landed on the ground, he heard a clone approaching from behind. He threw his elbow backwards, but his attack was ducked and the opponent delivered a blow to his kidney.

He stumbled forward running into the fist of another clone. It all feel apart from their as more clones moved in, attacking him while he stumbled around. As the clones began to converge on him, all getting ready to attack, he waved his hand, signaling for them to stop. The clones backed off, disappearing into puffs of smoke.

His hearing picked up the sound of clapping. "Very good, Naruto." Came a familiar, masculine voice, "You were doing well until you tried to show off with that shuriken attack."

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto questioned, pulling his forehead protector back to his rightful place, "How long have you been there?" He looked over to see the tall man leaning up against one of the wooden training logs.

"Longer than you have." The jounin answered, "You really should have noticed my presence from the very beginning."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, well I was preoccupied."

"I can see that." Kakashi said with nod. "That's quite an interesting training style you've got there."

"Yep," Naruto answered with a grin, "I thought it up after my fight during my mission with Sakura-chan. I couldn't see the guy, but if I molded enough chakra in my ears, I could hear him."

"Very resourceful," Kakashi complimented, "It could be useful when fighting an enemy with a doujutsu."

Naruto nodded emphatically, "That's exactly what I was thinking. Maybe sometime I could try it out on your sharingan?"

"We'll have to do that sometime." Kakashi agreed, "Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now, as I'm already late for a meeting with the Hokage."

"Oh yeah," Naruto began, "Sakura-chan and Shikamaru told me something about a meeting. Wasn't it supposed to start earlier today?"

"Heh, heh, I guess so." Kakashi chuckled nervously, scratching a spot behind his head. "I just got kind of side tracked."

Naruto looked behind the jounin towards the memorial stone. "What were you doing here anyway?" The blond asked with a quizzical look, "You weren't training, were you?"

"Nope, not training," Kakashi answered, "Just taking a stroll down memory lane…"

"Heh, this place does have a lot of memories, doesn't it?" Naruto questioned as he took a look around, "This is where we took our gennin test."

"Yep…" Kakashi murmured airily. There was silence for a moment before he spoke again. "Say, shouldn't you be at that meeting too? All the other kids your age were informed of it."

"Really?" Naruto inquired, Kakashi nodded, "Well, the old lady didn't tell me anything."

"Hmm, you should probably come with me anyways, I have a feeling this might be important."

Naruto shrugged, "Might as well. Besides training, I don't have much else to do today."

So, Naruto began to follow Kakashi as he lead them to the Hokages tower. He didn't notice as Kakashi threw one last look over his should to gaze at the memorial stone for a second.

!-!-!-!-!

The two ninja arrived at the Hokages office a few minutes later. "They've been waiting for you, Kakashi-san." One of the ANBU guards informed them as they approached the doors.

"Is that so?" Kakashi inquired disinterestedly, "Well, I hope I haven't upset the Hokage."

Without a second thought, Kakashi pushed the door open and walked into the Hokages office with Naruto following. The blond ninja was surprised to see the majority of the room glaring at the two of them. He saw a few expected faces. Shikamaru sat to his right with his team. Sakura was sitting up closer to the Hokages desk next to Team Gai. The rest of the room was filled with Team Kurenai and a few other jounin Naruto didn't recognize.

"Sorry, everybody." Kakashi addressed the room as a whole with a chuckle, "Me and my comrade here got lost catching up on old times." He said, indicating Naruto with a pat on the head. The blond looked up at the taller man with a cocked eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"Yes, yes, Kakashi." Tsunade said in an annoyed tone, "We've heard it all before, have a seat and we can begin." She looked over towards Naruto, "You too, kid."

Naruto nodded, and followed Kakashi as he led him to a seat next to Sakura and Team Gai. As Naruto and Kakashi took their seats, Sakura gave the two of them an annoyed glare. "What took the two of you so long?" She hissed at them.

"I didn't even know I was supposed to come to this thing." Naruto answered, "Kakashi-sensei invited me."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anymore as Tsunade began to address the room.

"Now that we're all here-" She began.

"Finally!" Someone said from the back of the room, sounding suspiciously like Inuzika Kiba. Naruto looked back and glared at the dog boy.

"Yes," Tsunade began again, "Now that we are all _finally _here, we can begin. Now, I'm sure you've all heard one way or another that we won't be holding the Chuunin exam here like we usually do. This is because the new Raikage of the Hidden Cloud village has offered us the chance to take the exam at their village."

"But isn't the Hidden Cloud our enemy?" Shikamaru droned from somewhere in the room.

Tsunade shook her head, "Technically, we are on neutral terms with them, but we have still never been the closest of friends." The Hokage paused momentarily and looked towards Hyuuga Neji and Hinata, "As most of you know, we usually hold our exam with the Hidden Sand and the small bordering villages. While we do that, the Hidden Cloud usually holds an exam in their Village that involves the Hidden Stone, and Hidden Mist. This year, the Raikage is proposing a exam between all five Kage villages."

She stopped and let the information sink in with the others. Everyone seemed surprised, and began to chat quietly with those around them. Naruto looked around with a raised brow and then looked forward at the Hokage.

"But, how is that a good thing?" The blond questioned, causing the entire room to go quiet. Everyone stared at him, not necessarily surprised that he had spoken up, but that it had been in a more civilized manner. "How is a joint Chuunin exam a good thing?" Naruto questioned again, "The old man Hokage, the way he explained it, a Chuunin exam is like a substitute for war. It sounds to me like the Raikage just wants to see how strong we are."

Tsunade eyed Naruto with a raised eyebrow, then she smirked, "You're right, kid. Although the Raikage is claiming he is doing this in peace, it is possible he has a more malevolent intention. That's one of the main reasons we're worried about going into this."

"What are the other Kages opinions on this?" Kakashi asked.

"As the Hidden Clouds allies, the Tsushikage and the Mizukage have no other choice but to support his decision. As far as I know, the Kazekage will only go along with it if we go along with it."

"And are we going to go along with it?" Kakashi questioned.

Everyone leaned forward in anticipation as the Hokage took her time in telling them.

"Yes," She answered, "We need something to prove our strength. We need to prove to the world that we have been able to successfully bounce back from the Sand-Sound invasion. If we get a total alliance of peace with the other kage nations, then that's just a bonus."

Everyone was quiet for a minute as they digested the information. "Why the hell are we here?" Shikamaru questioned, "Everyone here is already a Chuunin or a jounin, what do you need us for?"

The hokage held up a finger, "First of all, protection. I'm going to be using you guys for protection because I know that there are still some ninja in the Cloud Village that don't like Konoha and will attack us, and I know I will need more than just a few jounin and gennin." She put up another finger, "Secondly, you guys are some of my top young Chuunin, just as the gennin will be there to show off the villages strength, so will you." _And thirdly, _she thought to herself, _I can't take my top jounin or ANBU because I don't want to leave the village defenseless against Danzou._

"Er, old lady," Naruto spoke up, "I'm not a Chuunin yet."

"What?" Tsunade snapped, turning on the blond boy.

"Yeah," Naruto said slowly, "I was-you know-gone for nearly three years."

"What?" Tsunade said again, raising an eyebrow, "You mean I haven't already-" Naruto gave her a questioning look. "Oh, right!" She said. She began rifling through the files on her desk, until she eventually found a scroll, which she tossed to the blond. "I meant to give you that earlier, but something got in my way."

Naruto eyed the scroll warily. Everyone around him peered at it with interest as he slowly popped the seal on it and opened it. He read it out loud to himself, "Uzumaki Naruto, you are hereby declared a Chuunin under the orders of the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade-sama."

He looked back up at the Hokage. She smiled at him.

He looked back down at the scroll with wide eyes.

"Here it comes." Kakashi muttered, putting his hands over his ears.

"WOOOHOOO! CHUUNIN! CHUUNIN! CHUUNIN!CHUUNIN!" The blond boy shouted, jumping up and down and dancing all around the Hokages office, "TAKE THAT KIBA! I'M A CHUUNIN NOW!" Naruto shouted, randomly picking out the dog boy.

"SHUT UP, DUMBASS!" Kiba shouted, standing up from his seat, "I'VE BEEN A CHUUNIN FOR MORE THAN A YEAR!" Naruto stopped and narrowed his eyes at Kiba in a glare.

"Kid," Tsunade called out to him, "Sit down and shut up or I'll demote you and stick you to doing D-Rank missions for the next month. Naruto switched his glare to the older woman, but sat down as he was told.

"Now, if there are no more questions." Tsunade began, "Then we will end this meeting for now. The exam starts in a month. We'll meet back in a week or two to discuss travel arrangements and which teams will be participating."

With that, the various ninja got up and left, all murmuring to their friends about the news.


	14. Training!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed or added this story to their aleart or favorites. A special thanks to everyone who's reading this now instead of seeing Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

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Outside of the Hokages tower, standing on the ledge that hung over the window to the Hokages office stood three young ninja.

"Konohamaru-chan, I'm not sure we should be doing this." The only girl of the three spoke as one of the boys got down on his knees and peered of the ledge.

"Don't worry, Moegi," Konohamaru soothed her fears, "I just gotta take a quick peak down there and see what's going on it that meeting. Just hold my feet and make sure I don't fall."

The girl, Moegi, nodded hesitantly, and reached down and grabbed one of the boys feet. The other boy on their team reached down and grabbed the other foot. "Okay," Konohamaru began, "Lower me down a bit until I say stop." The other two nodded in compliance and began to lower the boy over the ledge so he could see into the Hokages office. "Stop, that's far enough." Konohamaru said once he was far enough down to see.

Upside down, he stared into the Hokages office, surprised to see that the only person in the room was the Hokage herself, and she was looking out the window right at him.

Konohamarus eyes widened as the Hokage gave him a questioning glance. "Eh heh," He chuckled nervously, waving at the woman, "Hi."

"What's going on, Konohamaru-chan?" Moegi asked, trying to also peer over the ledge without falling over.

The dark haired boy looked up at his teammates, "Pull me back up," He said urgently, "She can see me." Both his teammates eyes widened as they frantically tried to pull him up by his legs.

"Oh no!" Moegi exclaimed, letting go of the boys foot. Konohamaru screamed as he nearly fell, only saved by the grip of his other teammate.

"Moegi!" Konohamaru shouted up at her, "Why the hell did you let go?" The boy looked back into the Hokages office to see the blonde leader still seating behind her desk with folded arms and a small smile.

"It's Ebisu-sensei!" Moegi exclaimed, pointing down at the streets below, "He's coming this way!"

"Agh! Damn it! Pull me up! Up!" Konohamaru shouted. The girl once again grabbed his foot, saving her straining teammate the effort and pulling Konohamaru fully up onto the ledge. The dark haired boy tried to sit up immediately, but was forced back down by a dizzy spell. After a few seconds, he managed successfully sit up.

Moegi dragged him to his feet, "Come on, Konohamaru-chan. If we get caught by Ebisu-sensei, he's going to scold us and make us run laps." Konohamaru nodded, spurred on by his desire not to run laps. He pulled his teammates with over to a nearby wall and pulled a cloaking cloth around them, effectively making them camouflage against the wall.

The three of them stood silent, pressed up against the wall. Ebisu landed on the spot they had just vacated, causing them to hold their breath. The jounin looked around for a bit, even staring in the exact space the three children occupied. Konohamaru squeezed his eyes shut, thinking momentarily thinking they had been caught, but Ebisu pushed his glasses up on his face and jumped off the ledge, continuing his search.

"Whew!" Konohamaru let out his breath, dropping the cloaking cloth. "I thought we were almost caught."

"Look," The third member of the team spoke up nasally, "It's Leader."

Konohamaru followed the pointing finger of his friend and saw the head of blond hair moving down the street. "It is him!" Konohamaru exclaimed, watching as Naruto strutted down the street, waving about a scroll in his hand. He watched as the pink haired girl behind the blond pulled back her fist, ready to strike Naruto in the head. The only thing that stopped her was the masked man next to the two.

"What's that scroll in his hand?" Moegi questioned.

"I don't know," Konohamaru answered, continuing to watch as a bobbed haired teen ran up to Naruto saying something emphatically that the three younger kids couldn't hear from their high vantage point, "But I bet it has something to do with that meeting we were trying to spy on."

"You think so, Konohamaru-kun?" The nasally member inquired.

"Yep!" Konohamaru confirmed, punching his fist into his open palm, "And if Leader doesn't tell us what went on in that meeting, then we'll beat it out of him!"

!-!-!-!-!

Back in her office, Tsunade turned from her window and began working on the paperwork in front of her. "Kids these days…" She muttered to herself.

!-!-!-!-!

"Old man, old man!" Naruto crowed at the top of his lungs, "Another bowl!"

"Naruto," Sakura admonished the blond, "At least finish your first bowl first." Naruto looked over to Sakura before looking down at his half full bowl of ramen. With a shrug, he picked the bowl up by its edges, lifted it to his mouth and drained the liquid and noodles in it in two mighty gulps. Sakura watched the blond, her eye twitching in irritation. "That. Was. Disgusting." Kakashi chuckled as Naruto began berating the old man behind the bar to hurry up with his next bowl. Sakura turned her gaze on the Jounin, "Don't encourage him, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi continued on chuckling, "Ah, don't be so hard on him, Sakura. He _did _just get promoted, let him celebrate a little."

"Celebrate?" The old man questioned, slamming another bowl in front of Naruto, "This is how he acts _everyday."_

Kakashi just chuckled and shook his head, going back to his own bowl of ramen.

"Eh, Kakashi-sensei, do I get one of those cool jackets now?" Naruto questioned, indicating the older mans flak jacket with a point of his chopsticks.

"You can get one at the supply shop," The jounin answered, "Although most of the kids your age don't wear them."

"That's right," Sakura continued for the man, "The only ones who do are Lee-san and Shikamaru."

Naruto scratched his head with his chop sticks, _Do I really want to be like Fuzzy Eyebrows or Shikamaru? _He questioned himself. He imagined himself standing in a line up with Lee in his classic fighting stance and Shikamaru staring at the clouds in boredom. _Maybe not. _With a shrug he went back to eating his ramen with the same chopsticks he had just scratched his head with.

Sakura stared at him with her jaw hanging open, _Di-did he just do that?_ She thought to herself disgustedly.

Naruto didn't notice his female comrades look as he continued to happily eat his ramen.

"LEADER!" Came a shout from the entrance of the ramen stand. Sakura and Kakashi turned around to see Konohamaru standing in a dramatic pose, pointing towards Naruto. His two friends stood behind him, also trying to strike their own 'cool' poses.

"Oh, Konohamaru and friends," Kakashi greeted with a wave, "Did you come to get some ramen?"

Konohamaru ignored Kakashis friendly greeting and instead marched right behind the ignorant Naruto. "Naruto! I'm talking to you!"

The blond finally turned around, slurping up some noodles as he did so, "Oh, Konohamaru. Did you come to get some ramen?"

"NO!" Konohamaru shouted in Narutos face, "I came to demand that you tell me what happened in that meeting!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow and smirked, "What meeting?" He asked innocently.

"Don't give me any of that crap, Naruto! You know what I'm talking about!" The young boy shouted.

"Konohamaru," Kakashi began, giving the boy a placating gesture of the hand, "Keep it down, there's no need to shout."

"Yeah, Konohamaru," Naruto added, "Shut up and let us eat our ramen."

"That's it!" The young boy continued to shout, as he jumped backwards and pulled out a shuriken, "I'll just beat the information out of you. HA!" The hot-blooded boy flung the shuriken. Naruto watched lazily as the shuriken flew and harmlessly bounced off his forehead protector. "Grrrr," The boy growled, "If that wont work, then try this: _Oiroke no Jutsu!" _Naruto continued to apathetically watch as the boy before him turned into a sexy, young naked girl, with smoke it all the right places.

"I already told you, that has no affect on me." Naruto said, waving the naked figure off. A clatter of pans behind the counter announced that the old man cook had collapsed from blood lost through the nose. Kakashi, who was sporting a red splotch around the nose area of his mask, leaned over the counter to check on the man.

"Naruto, just tell the kid what he wants." Sakura mumbled, glaring at the well curved figure before her, "He's starting to get annoying."

"Alright," Naruto conceded, causing the black haired femme before him to pop back into a young boy with a triumphant smile.

"I knew I would beat it out of you eventually, Naruto." The dark haired boy crowed. Behind him, his teammates seemed a lot less enthusiastic about the 'victory'.

"Whatever," Naruto said, "Just sit down and shut up and I'll tell you what went down in that meeting." Naruto stopped and eyed the boy and his companions as they sat down, "…And don't expect me to buy you ramen!"

Konohamaru mumbled something about stingy blonds, but decided to shut his mouth as Naruto began to explain what went on during the meeting.

"THEN!" Naruto continued on dramatically, "I was promoted to Chuunin because I'm so good, and I was able to rub it in that bastard Kiba's face. That old lady Hokage practically tossed the promotion at me."

"So…The Chuunin exam is coming up?" Asked the younger boy. Naruto nodded.

"Aww man," Moegi groaned, "Ebisu-sensei most likely wont let us join because we just became genin."

"Yeah," Udon droned nasally, "We need more training."

"I'm sure Ebisu will train the three of you just fine." Kakashi tried to soothe the younger kids worries.

Konohamaru scratched his head and shared a look with his fellow genin. All three of them nodded before turning towards Naruto and bowing to him.

The blond raised an eyebrow.

"Please, Leader, train us for the Chuunin exams." All three of them chorused.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto scratched his blond crown uncertainly. He stood before the three bowing children, but the interior of the ramen shop had been replaced by a sunny training field. "Geez," Naruto groaned, "Why did I agree to do this again?"

Konohamaru looked up at him with a grin, "Because that pink haired chick told you to." The boy answered.

Tilting his head up in thought, Naruto lapsed into his memories. _"Just do it to shut them all up!" Sakura had pleaded with him after the Konohamaru corps and begged him for the twentieth time._ "Oh…right." Naruto muttered vaguely.

"Heh, that chick really has you whipped, Naruto!" Konohamaru crowed.

"You little brat!" Naruto seethed, marching up to the boy with a fist raised. The boy cowered in fear before him, but Naruto decided not to hit him. But, that didn't mean he was letting him off easy. "Say any crap like that one more time and I wont be training you at all." Konohamaru gasped and resumed bowing before Naruto. "That's more like it."

"So, what are you going to teach us first?" Konohamaru questioned from his prone position on the ground.

"I dunno," Naruto said with a shrug.

"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF TEACHER ARE YOU?" Konohamaru suddenly shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Naruto.

"What the hell did I just say?" Naruto questioned the boy hotly. He was pleased to see Konohamaru go back to bowing before him. "Now, let me think…" Naruto continued, "You've already gone through your bell test…"

"What?" Konohamaru questioned, lifting up his head, "What's a bell test?"

Naruto raised a brow at the boy, "You mean you didn't take the bell test?" He clarified. The dark haired boy shook his head. Naruto looked around to see the other two giving him the same gesture. "Well damn, I thought everyone took the bell test." A smirk lit up his face. _That would be the perfect way to train them, _he thought to himself, _With a few modifications to the rules._ He looked around him, trying to find anything that he could substitute for bells. When his search proved futile, he began to get more creative. He dug into the pouch at his waist and pulled out two scrolls with a grin, he held them up to the three genin with a smirk. "Todays training will be a test of your skills to get these two scrolls away from me."

"Scrolls?" Konohamaru questioned, "I thought you said something about bells?"

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY?" Naruto lashed out at the boy, causing him to go back to bowing before the blond. "Now," Naruto continued calmly, "You will have three hours today, if you can't get them from me before then, then we'll continue this tomorrow and the next day after that if needed. If you can't get the scrolls before the Chuunin exam, then you wont be allowed to participate."

The three genin looked on in horror at the idea of not being able to participate in the exam.

"If you really want to participate, I suggest you come at me with the intent to kill." The blond continued with a smirk, pocketing the two scrolls. He eyed the stationary genin with a cocked eyebrow. "What are you waiting for?"

Konohamaru was the first into action, with Moegi not far behind. The dark haired boy arrived with a fist which Naruto easily blocked. Moegi came up with a high kick that was ducked just as easily. While he was ducked, Konohamaru tried to catch the blond off guard with a kick to the face. Naruto caught the kick with a smile and used it to fling the boy clear across the field.

He blocked a low punch by Moegi. He held onto her small fist and planted his foot in her chest, kicking her backwards. "This is no far," The girl whined as she pushed herself off the ground, "You're too strong."

Naruto shrugged, fully enjoying his role as the over confident teacher, "Then I guess you better try harder. That weird kid in the glasses hasn't even stood up yet."

"Get up, Udon!" Moegi said with a glare in the boys direction, "We wont be able to participate if we don't beat him!"

With a sigh and a nod he stood up and took a battle pose.

A war cry alerted Naruto to the approaching Konohamaru. Looking forward, he saw that Moegi and Udon were also charging. Naruto looked back over his shoulder again to watch the approaching Konohamaru, and then looked forward again to watch Moegi and Udon charge. With a large grin, the blond performed a back flip just in time as the three genin converged on his figure. Without his body there and with no time to react, all three kids ran into each other, bumping heads and falling to the ground.

Naruto doubled over in laughter as the three genin dizzily tried to untangle themselves from each other. The three of them finally managed to stand up and each fixed him with a glare.

"You'll never get a scroll like that," Naruto said around his laughter.

All three glares intensified.

Naruto stretched out his palm, flicking it forward and beckoning the three of them forward. "Come on, we're just getting started here."


	15. Orochimaru!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, or added this story to their alerts, favorites, or c2.

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He sat in a dark room, barely illuminated by the flickering glow of a few candles adorning the walls. He sat in what could only be described as a throne, carved out of wood in an ornate fashion, resting on a dais a few feet above the floor. That's how he liked it. Above everyone else. It made him feel in power, in control. Like the undiscovered god that he believed he was.

A door opened at the other end of the room, his _throne _room. The light from outside the door cut through the darkness and cast itself upon his face. Fully illuminating his yellow, snake-like eyes. He narrowed those very eyes in irritation as whoever had opened the door dared to barge in on his peace and quiet without so much as a knock. His irritation dissolved, however, when he managed to get brief glimpse at interrupter before the door was shut again and the light was cast away. He saw the pale skin. The dark hair. And most of all, those red eyes he loved so much.

"Orochimaru." The boy spoke, approaching his _throne, _"I have come with a request."

Orochimaru smirked in the near darkness of his chamber, "Of course, Sasuke-kun, go on."

Sasuke walked up to a stop at the snake sannins throne. "It's time." The boy spoke bluntly, offering no further form of explanation.

Orochimaru raised a practice eyebrow in the darkness. He knew what the boy was talking about. Of course he did. He had been expecting it for some time now. But, despite that, he still feigned innocence, "I don't understand, Sasuke-kun." He spoke in a falsely 'sweet' tone, "Please explain."

He could hear the boy growl slightly in impatience. The exact reaction he had expected. Control. The boy was always under his control. Under his influence. Even if he didn't notice. "It's time for me to seek out my brother. It's time for me to avenge my clan."

"At such an early time?" Orochimaru questioned, faking shock. Sasuke didn't notice.

"Yes." Sasuke answered, as impatient as always. "Now is the perfect time. I will seek him out and I will fight him. If I am not ready, I will come back for more power."

"And if you are ready?" Orochimaru asked. He knew is questions only served to irritate the boy more, but that's what he wanted. It was so easy to manipulate the boy, especially when you had something he wanted.

"Then I will come back here and restart my clan." Sasuke ground out.

Orochimaru nodded into the darkness. "And which one of the fine females shall you choose to bare your children? Many of them have come to me, asking permission to court you. I th-"

"Orochimaru!" Sasuke growled through clenched teeth, "I don't give a damn about that right now! All I require is your permission to go after my brother!"

"Yes. Sorry, Saskue-kun." The snake sannin apologized, inwardly chuckling to himself. He had played with the Uchihas mind enough, anymore and the boy might get mad and straight up leave. "Now, how do you plan on finding your brother?"

Sasuke paused before he spoke. His tone carried a slight, almost imperceptible hint of uncertainty. "…You and Kabuto have trained me in tracking techniques, I was planning on putting them to use."

Orochimaru shook his head, "But to utilize a tracking technique, you first have to have a trace of your prey in the first place. You have no idea where Uchiha Itachi was last seen." Sasuke opened his mouth to interrupt, but Orochimaru stopped him by holding up his hand. "…But, I can help you. I may not know where he his, but I have a good lead, courtesy of Kabuto." He held his hand out and snapped his fingers. Kabuto stepped out of the darkness behind Orochimarus throne and place a scroll in his outstretched hand. The bespectacled man winked at Sasuke before stepping back into the shadows. "A jinchuuriki." Orochimaru explained, "I have been keeping an eye on the movements of Akatsuki and have found out that two of them have been actively pursuing this jinchuuriki. Find the jinchuuriki and you find Akatsuki. Question them and you just may find your brother. This scroll has all known information of this man." He tossed the scroll to the boy in front of him.

"Thank you, Orochimaru," Sasuke said, genuinely grateful. He turned and began walking away. Orochimaru watched him with a smirk. Once he was gone, Kabuto stepped out of the shadows again.

"Do you think he can truly do it?" The white haired man asked.

Orochimaru laughed out loud, the creepy sound bouncing off the walls. "Come on, Kabuto. I thought you were smart. The chances of him encountering Itachi is unlikely, but if he does, he wont stand a chance. I doubt even I would stand a chance in my current state, which is why the two of us must become one.

"But what if he does encounter Itachi, or if the Akatsuki team he encounters is too strong for him?" Kabuto asked, a convincing tone of concern in his voice.

"That's why you will be following him." Orochimaru spoke, tuning to the white haired man with a small curve to his lipless mouth.

Kabuto bowed slightly, "Of course, Orochimaru-sama." With that, he formed a quick seal and was out of the room in a blur.

Orochimaru leaned back into his throne, his lips twitching into a smirk. He had power. He had control. And soon he would have Sasuke. For him, life couldn't get any better.

!-!-!-!-!

Sakura sighed in boredom as she listlessly pursed a scroll, looking for the information she sought. Truthfully, Sakura wasn't even sure what she was looking for. Tsunade had sent to the archive room over an hour ago, but since then the boredom of the endless scrolls had melted her brain and she could no longer remember why she was there.

She rubbed her temples and leaned back with a sigh. "Geez," She muttered to herself, "Tsunade-shishou is going to be so pissed when I don't come back with what she's looking for." This 'mission' the Hokage had sent her on could have been more interesting if the various scrolls around her contained interesting new Jutsu or something. Instead she was looking up tax reports, or something along those lines. Some busy work the Hokage didn't want to do and had dumped on her.

She pushed her chair back, standing up and walking through the aisles of scrolls. She knew she wasn't going to be able to complete the report Tsunade had wanted from her, at least not anytime soon. So, for the time being, she decided to pursue more interesting subjects.

Sakura wasn't sure how she ended up in the aisle marked with the letter 'U', but once she was there she couldn't help but look for a certain persons scroll. As she began pursuing the shelves, she was just a bit surprised when she couldn't find anything under the name 'Uchiha'. _With all the conflict surrounding that clan, their scroll is probably in the restricted section._

So, with a shrug, the girl moved on, pursuing the scrolls for another name that began with a 'U'. She was genuinely surprised this time as the name Uzumaki was nowhere to be found amongst the many shelves. "Now that's strange." She murmured to herself. "Sasuke and his clan makes sense, but why would Naruto be in the hidden section?"

The dull archive room didn't answer her question, and that made her all the more curious. She walked to the end of the aisle and peeked around a few of the shelves. Down a way she could see a door clearly marked 'restricted'. A mischievous grin lit up her face. _It wouldn't hurt to look up a bit of information about my teammate, would it? _Sakura questioned herself, already walking towards the door. _I can get back to those reports later._

She reached the door and found it easy to open and walk into the dimly lit room beyond. _For a ninja complex, you would think something such as this would be more securely guarded._ She reached over to the wall and flipped on a light switch, fully lighting up the room. Unlike the archive room behind her, this room wasn't very organized. Scroll and files were tossed about with seemingly no order at all. With a sigh, Sakura scratched her pink head. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. _She made to turn and leave the forbidden room, but thoughts of her report filled her head and she stayed.

"Right," She hummed to herself, "So where would Naruto and Sasukes scrolls be?" She spoke out loud as she began exploring the pig sty of a room.

It took her a few minutes, but eventually Sakura did find Naruots scroll, but when she did she was immediately drawn to the scroll lying next to it. She picked up the mysterious scroll, carrying it to the table in the small room and running her fingers along the name on it. "Orochimaru…" She breathed to herself. Suddenly, she didn't care what her friends scroll had to say.

She slowly opened the scroll, immediately greeted by an old picture of the Snake Sannin. As she unfurled the scroll a bit more, she realized that it was quite empty, except for a chart of sorts. Further inspection revealed to the girl that it was a family tree for quite a large family. She found Orochimarus name at the bottom of the chart and traced it up to the top, passing over many names she had never heard before. She traced all the way to the top, trying to see which ninja had created the clan. She was surprised, when all she saw at the top of the family tree was the drawn picture of a very large snake.

Sakura rubbed her head, looking at the scroll in confusion. _Was Orochimarus clan started by a snake?_ Curious, the pink haired girl stood up, planning on looking for more scroll about the mysterious sannin.

"Sakura!" Someone called from the other room, "Where are you?"

_Argh, Dammit! It's Shizune-san! If she catches me here, I'll probably get scolded._

"Sakura?" Shizune stuck her head into the restricted room, surprising Sakura who thought she would have more time to hide, or at least think up a decent lie. "What are you doing in here?"

"Ummm…" Sakura nervously reached a hand behind her head, a bad habit she was starting to pick up from Naruto and Kakashi. "I…er…"

Shizune chuckled, "I see. Don't worry, I wont tell Tsunade-sama."

"Thank you, Shizune-san," Sakura bowed slightly, fully relieved, "It will-"

Shizune waved her off, "Whatever." She said disinterestedly, leading the pink haired girl out of the room, "Just don't let me catch you in there again, okay?"

Sakura didn't say anything.

"Anyways," Shizune continued, "The Hokage wants you to meet her at the main gate."

"What for?" Sakura asked.

"Someone interesting just arrived." The dark haired medic spoke with a soft smile.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto stared as Konohamaru peeled himself off the ground. The younger boy was glaring at the blond, his chest heaving and his face covered in sweat. Naruto just smirked, pretending to not show any interest in the young boy.

With a small growl, Konohamaru was on the attack…again. His teammates were no where to be seen.

With a seal and a shout the boy replicated himself multiple times, causing Naruto's brow to rise. The multiple Konohamarus let out a hot-blooded yell, each drawing a Kunai from the pouch on their thigh.

Naruto yawned as they approached. Only one of the Konohamarus feet made noise against the ground, and Naruto's hearing helped him easily identify the real one.

All the boys converged on him at once.

Naruto stood perfectly still, letting the harmless attacks pass through him. Once the real Konohamaru made his move, the blond sprung into action. He grabbed onto Konohamrus arm, twisting it to a painful angle and causing him to drop the Kunai. He then grabbed the dark haired boy by the front of his shirt, picking him up overhead and tossing him across the field.

The sound of metal slicing through air alerted the blond to a shuriken attack. He kicked up Konohamarus dropped kunai and twirled it around, blocking all the attacks. Then to finish he hurled the kunai. It struck the branch of a tree, causing a girlish scream to go through the air as Moegi fell from her hiding spot.

"That's two down." Naruto said with a grin.

He turned and looked over his shoulder as he heard a rustling sound come from the bushes. Udon stepped out and gave Naruto the best glare he could. His attempt was ruined by the snot dripping from his nose.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the bespectacled boy.

With a sigh, Udon dropped his lame attempt at a glare and fell to the ground.

"Wow, you guys really are pathetic." Naruto chuckled, "At this rate, you'll NEVER become Chuunin…EVER!" He continued on laughing.

"SHUT UP, NARUTO!" Konohamaru shouted, making a futile attempt at standing back up. "WE WON'T LOSE TO YOU!"

"YEAH!" Moegi continued, crawling on hands and knees to Konohamaru's position.

Udon was silent.

"WE'LL GET THOSE SCROLLS NO MATTER WHAT!"

Naruto waved the screaming boy off with an amused expression. Truly, he was impressed, but he wasn't going to tell them that. "Whatever. You guys are wasting my time. Meet back here tomorrow." With that, he walked off with a genuine smile.

!-!-!-!-!

As he approached the exit to the training grounds, Naruto saw the familiar and hard to miss figure of Akimichi Chouji walking towards him. "Hey Chouji, what are you doing here?" Naruto greeted the large ninja.

"Oh, hey Naruto. We were looking for you." Chouji answered with a friendly grin.

Naruto gave him a confused look, "We?"

Chouji nodded, stepping aside to reveal Shikamaru behind.

"Yeah," The Nara boy answered, "It's troublesome, but the Hokage is requesting our presence. She told us to come over here and get you."

"Pffft! I don't care what the old hag wants. I'll talk to her later, after I've eaten some ramen." Naruto said disinterestedly, already walking past the two boys and making his way towards Ichirakus.

"But Naruto," Chouji stopped him, "This is more important than food."

Naruto stopped and turned around with wide eyes. "WHAT?" Shikamaru looked just as surprised, although without the loud outburst.

"Yeah," Chouji continued on naturally, as if nothing was wrong. "That guy just arrived. The Kazekage. The two of you are friends, right?"

Naruto's previous shock dissipated. "Gaara?"

"Uh, yeah." Shikamaru answered, still starring at his large friend in shock, "Gaara just arrived at the main gate." He turned over to Naruto, but all that was left of him was an orange shadow.


	16. Kazekage!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed or added this story to thier alerts, favorites or c2.

* * *

Naruto pumped his feet under him, running as fast as he could to the main gate. He could vaguely hear the sounds of Chouji and Shikamaru trying to catch up with him. He brushed past many people in the streets, causing them to jump out of his way and yell lame curses at him. He grinned in anticipation when he saw the main gate get closer and closer, a group of people standing in front of it.

The blond dodged around an old couple, flipped over a stationary child, and came to a sliding halt right behind the largest group of people at the main gate. He recognized many people in the group as those that had attended the meeting a few days prior. At the head of the group, stood the Hokage, decked out in her rarely worn hat and robe. Next to her were Sakura and Shizune, both of whom turned to look at Naruto as he approached.

Tsunade glanced back at him, then glanced back further at the approaching Shikamaru and Chouji. "Guess the gangs all here, huh?" The large breasted woman mused.

Naruto stepped right up to her side. The group was facing the main gate, and outside the gate, standing at the border of their village stood Gaara of the Sand, Kazekage of the Hidden Sand village. He too was dressed in his rarely adorned kage clothing. Flanking the red haired leader on either side were his two siblings; Kankurou, wearing his usual outfit sans the pointy hood, and Temari wearing a fashionable fighting dress with a wide sash for the fan on her back.

"Why the hell is he standing all the way over there?" Naruto asked loudly, earning him an elbow in the ribs from Tsunade.

"Shut up, brat." The Hokage hissed, "It's a type of ritual I have to perform to grant the Kazekage access to the village."

"Ohhhh," The blond said, enlightened. Then he paused, "But the old man never did this the first time during the Chuunin exam."

"That's cause we weren't allies then, we were just neutral!" The Hokage hissed, "Now shut up, you're distracting me." Tsunade walked forward and cleared her throat before speaking, " Kazekage-sama, Gaara of the Sand, I grant you access to this village, as you are its true ally." The Hokage bowed to the sand nin, as did all the other ninja behind her except Naruto. The blond watched them all bow with a raised brow, until Sakura reached over jerked him down.

"I thank you for the invitation, Hokage-sama, Tsunade." The Kazekage spoke walking past the threshold of the village and bowing with his two siblings.

Naruto chuckled. "Gaara looks so foolish in that hat."

"Shut up!" Sakura hissed. But she had to admit, the usually fearsome sand nin did indeed look a bit foolish in the Kazekage hat. In fact, he looked quite uncomfortable under it.

"Now that that's over, I think we should head to my office to discuss some things."

Gaara nodded, but Temari stepped forward. "If it's not a problem," The blond spoke, "Could we be shown to our hotel first? I think the Kazekage needs to take a few minutes to lie down, he's still not entirely healthy and the trip here was long and taxing."

Gaara raised a brow at his sister, but didn't say anything. Tsunade grinned slightly, _It seems that even the Kazekage has to deal with an overprotective sister. _"Of course." Tsunade said out loud. "I am surprised by your early arrival, I though you would be coming a few days later…and I thought there would be more of you."

"The rest of our group will be arriving in a few days." The Kazekage spoke for himself; "I thought it would be best if we came here quickly, so that you and I could discuss…" He paused awkwardly, "…Kage issues."

"Ah, understood." Tsunade nodded. She caught the look on Temari's face showing how she felt about Gaara rushing to get there. The Hokage turned around and beckoned Naruto forward. "Naruto, show the Kazekage and his entourage to their hotel."

Naruto gave the Hokage a questioning gaze, "…Am I supposed to know where the hell that is?"

Tsunade growled, "Sakura," She beckoned her student, "Show Naruto where the Kazekage will be staying."

Sakura nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama." She turned to Naruto, "This way." She turned and began walking away.

Naruto looked after the pink haired girl and then turned to the sand trio, "Er…I guess you guys follow me then." He said with a shrug, following after Sakura. Gaara stepped forward and followed Naruto, a ghost of a smile forming on his lips.

"Alright then." Tsunade said as the Kazekage departed after the blond. "The rest of you follow me to Hokage's tower, we're going be going over traveling plans, and I want you all there." There was a murmur of consent throughout the small crowd. "And you, Shikamaru," Hokage called upon the Nara boy, causing him to sigh. "I want you go around the village and collect these jounin and tell them to meet up at the tower." The woman searched around in her pocket and pulled out a list of names.

"Geez, why is she using me like some little errand boy?" Shikamaru grumbled under his breath.

"What's that?" The Hokage questioned with an edge to her voice.

"…N-Nothing." The Nara boy sighed.

"That's right 'nothing'!" The Hokage said, pushing the piece of paper into his palm.

She walked away with her entourage.

Shikamaru looked at the long list of names.

A sigh. "How troublesome."

!-!-!-!-!

"Geez, stupid old lady," Naruto groused, "How the hell was I supposed to know where the Kazakage is staying?"

Sakura sighed, "Isn't obvious? He would be staying at the fanciest place."

Naruto stared, "…Am I supposed to know where the hell _that_ is?"

Sakura sighed again, this time with a small smile, "You really are hopeless, Naruto."

"Hehhehheh…" The blond chuckled. He paused. He twisted his head to look behind him and grinned at Gaara and company. "So…What's up?"

The ghost of a smile returned to Gaaras face, "…That's no way to greet the Kazekage, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Pssh!" Naruto waved him off with his grin firmly in place, "I'm the guy who saved your life, I can address you however I want."

"Heh, I guess that is correct." The red haired leader spoke.

"Damn right!" The blond nodded emphatically. He paused and pointed at the hat perched upon the Kazekages head, "You know, that hat makes you look really stupid."

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded. Temari looked about ready to give Naruto a piece of her mind, and Kankurou chuckled in secret agreement. At least he did until he found the hat being thrust upon him.

"You are right." Gaara admitted, running a hand through his free red hair, "I hate that hat."

"Hey!" Kankurou began to protest, "Don't just shove things on me like that!"

"Gaara," Temari began with her arms crossed, "You know that hat is required for proper ceremonies."

"Yes, I know." The Kazekage admitted calmly, "That doesn't mean I like it."

"HEY! Don't ignore me!" Kankurou raved, "Just cause you're the Kazekage doesn't mean you can jus-"

Kankurou was ignored. "And you, Naruto-kun." Temari said. She pointed an accusing finger at the blond boy. "Don't think you can make fun of Gaara just because you played a part in saving his life!"

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. She punched Naruto in the arm lightly. "You need to learn respect for those in a higher position than you!"

"Pssh! Whatever!" Naruto bravely waved off the two females, "Let's just get to this hotel or whatever."

"I agreed." Gaara said with a nod.

Sakura made to continue lecturing Naruto, but noticed something. "Oh, we're here already." She said, indicating the lavish hotel before them.

!-!-!-!-!

The village of Ilnahen, a small place on the edge of the Lightening Country. Uchiha Sasuke walked the streets of the small village, easily disguised with a _henge. _There were ninja out there, ninja who were looking for him, ninja who could see through a transformation, but none of those ninja would be looking for him there, not in a place so small and out of the way.

He walked slowly through the streets, passing by various merchants and small businesses. No one gave him a second glance. Even the fact that he was a outsider didn't seem to bother any of the villagers.

The disguised Uchiha eyed a bar coming up along the street. The Iikagen Bar.

He had made his intentions clear from the very start in the small village. As soon as he had arrived, he began to question them. He was looking for someone-and if the villagers tips were right-he was about to find him.

He made his way into the bar and immediately cast his disguised blue eyes around the room, looking for his quarry. The bar was made up of many small tables and chairs, a homely place one would expect from a small village such as Ilnahen. He threw his gaze over to the bar where the bar tender served alcoholic drinks. There he spotted his prey, sitting on a stool.

Over the last few days of travel, Sasuke had poured over the scroll Orochimaru had given him, even going as far as using his Sharingan to help him memorize the information. He was certain he was looking at the right man.

Sasuke approached the bar.

"What can I get for you, Stranger?" The bartender asked as Sasuke sat down in a stool next to a young man with long, white hair.

"Nothing." The Uchiha answered smoothly. "Just a place to collect my thoughts for a bit."

"Well, alright…" The bar tender said, going back to performing busy work behind the bar.

"Nonsense," the silver haired man next to Sasuke spoke, "Bar tender, get this man a bottle of sake."

"Well, the man said he didn't-"

"Nonsense!" The man interjected. He put a friendly hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "Get this man a bottle of sake. In fact…" He whirled around on his stool, facing the rest of the bar. "Get all of these men a fresh bottle of sake, on me!" Random drunken patrons cheered for the generous stranger.

"Heh heh," The bar tender chuckled, "As long as you got the money, mister."

In response, the silver haired man threw down a bag of money on the bar.

The bar tender grinned, "Alright then, a fresh round of sake for everyone!"

"…Quite generous of you." Sasuke spoke to the man in a disguised voice.

The man grinned at the disguised teen with a slight blush to his cheeks. "I believe in doing the best I can to help others, even if it makes me poor."

Sasuke warily accepted his bottle of sake from the bar tender, "That's an…interesting way to live." Truly, he thought it was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. Giving things up for the happiness of others. It almost made the Uchiha think he was talking to Naruto again.

The man looked into his cup of sake, "Indeed," He mumbled, "It is the only way I can live if I ever want to achieve redemption for my past sins."

Sasuke raised a blond eyebrow that wasn't really his, "Your past sins?" He questioned.

"Yes…" The silver haired man continued the happy grin and blush from before fading., "I'm afraid that my life is not without sins. Terrible, terrible sins that I fear I may never be redeemed of."

Sasuke was genuinely interested, but he tried not to show it. "Hmm, that sounds…haunting. I wont force you to share."

"Nor would I, no matter the circumstances." The man spoke. He then tilted his head back, draining the last of his sake. "I'm afraid, that now that I have run out of money, I will be leaving now." He stood up and made to leave the bar before stopping and turning around. "I never got to introduce myself." He said with an extension of his hand. "My name is Shoukan Kishi. What is your name?"

Sasuke stretched out his disguised hand and put on a plastic smile, "…Uzumaki Naruto."

He had just found his prey…

!-!-!-!-!

"Naruto! Wake up and get off me, you're missing the meeting."

Naruto jerked awake to find himself in a sitting position on the floor. Looking around, he saw the familiar faces of some of his friends, along with a few older jounin who he didn't recognize. Ahead of him, the Hokage say with the Kazekage. On either side of the two leaders sat Danzou and some old woman Naruto had never seen before.

The blond turned to Sakura, who was glaring at him. He sheepishly scratched the back of his head. If he remembered correctly, he had fallen asleep when all the Jounin were stating whether they were going to allow their student to take the exam. Since he had fallen asleep, he had no idea if the Open Pervert was going to allow Konohamaru and the others to participate.

"So," Tsunade continued, apparently unaware that Naruto had been dozing off, "We will have to travel slowly, because of the children. But I figure we should be able to make it to the Hidden Cloud village, in two or so weeks, just in time for the exams."

No one seemed to have any problems with that, so the Hokage continued. "While we are traveling, you older ninja will be in charge of protection and the general upkeep of the convoy. All of you." There were a few groans and a distinctive sigh. "No complaining, that's just how it works out. Now, any questions." No one said anything. "Good, we leave in two days, I want everyone packed and ready at the main gate by noon."


	17. Attack!

More than 40,000 words. 17 Chapters. 37 reviews. Around 16,000 hits. Added to three c2s. On 28 favorites, and 38 alerts. And I'm still not even close to being done. Thanks to everyone. Anything you've done to support me helps keep this this fic alive. I can't list everyones name like I did last time, but I'm sure you know who you are.

* * *

A large conglomeration of Ninja stood at the front gate of Konoha. Both Sand and Leaf ninja rushed about, making last minute preparations and talking excitedly with their friends about the upcoming trip. Naruto stood at the back of this group, dressed in his normal orange clothing with his pack strapped to his back. Strangely, the blond wasn't being his usual excited and loud self. He stood alone, content to watch everyone else run about in excitement.

Up at the head of their group stood the two kages, both talking to each other and trying to prepare their ninja for the trip. Naruto saw that many of the younger ninja, who were probably going to be taking their first Chuunin exam, looked nervous.

"Heh, it feels kind of nice to not have to stress over the exam." Naruto spoke out loud to himself.

"Tell me about it," Someone droned from behind him. Naruto turned around and saw Shikamaru approaching, "The only good thing about passing that troublesome exam was that I no longer had to take it."

"I bet you're jealous of me." Naruto spoke with a slight chuckle, "I didn't even have to take the exam to pass."

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes in a glare.

Naruto grinned wide.

The Nara boy sighed and continued walking on to stand next to Chouji.

Naruto just shook his head and chuckled at the lazy Chuunin. He began searching the crowd, looking for Kakashi or Sakura, or anyone else he could talk to. "NARUTO!" The blond jumped as someone shrieked his name. He looked around, finding three angry genin glaring at him.

"Hey, Konohamaru…and you other two. What's up?" Naruto greeted with a casual wave. The three genin marched right up to him, continuing with their glares.

"You told us that if we didn't get the scrolls we wouldn't be able to participate in the exams!" Konohamaru exclaimed.

Naruto nodded slowly, "Yeah…I might have said something like that."

"Then how come we haven't got the scrolls, but we're still going to the exam?" The genin asked hotly.

"I don't know…" Naruto shrugged, "That's your senseis job, not mine."

"Then why the hell did you tell us that?" Konohamaru was obviously getting more and more pissed, it made Naruto laugh.

The chuckling Chuunin shrugged, "It made you try harder, I guess."

The young genin let out a high pitched growl. "Well, then, I guess that means we wont need anymore of your training." With that, the genin turned around, marching away.

"Oh well," Naruto mused out loud with a sly grin, "I guess that means you'll never get to see the special jutsu I have in those scrolls."

All three genin turned around and gave him a quizzical look, "New jutsu?" They questioned in one voice.

"Yep." Naruto confirmed, "I was going to teach it to you once you got the scrolls, but if you don't want it…"

All of a sudden all three genin were on their knees in front of him. "We're sorry for doubting you, we'll continue to take your training!" They shouted.

Naruto smirked, the kids were really easy to manipulate. "Alright then, run off to your sensei, we'll start training later."

"YES, LEADER!" They chorused, running off.

_Now all I have to do is think up some new jutsu to teach them once they get the scrolls, _Naruto mused, rubbing his blond head.

!-!-!-!-!

Sasuke sighed in frustration.

A week. He had been following after Shoukan Kishi for a week, hoping that the white haired man would lead him to Akatsuki and his brother.

And now Kishi was gone.

Sasuke had tried to keep up with the man, but he couldn't use his best speed because he didn't want to get caught. Now his prey was gone.

The Uchiha found himself walking a lonely dirt road in the dark, the moon shone high in the sky and provided him with a scarce bit of light. He didn't mind the darkness, he was used to it at Orochimaru's lair.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A voice shouted out from behind him. Sasuke paused in his walk, thinking that he had been approached by some bandits.

"Uchiha…Sasuke," Another voice, female this time, continued. Sasuke's eyes dark eyes widened. He immediately activated the Sharingan, spinning around in a ready position. Down the road, barely lit up by the moonlight, stood two figures. Both of them were clothed in black cloaks with red clouds, with straw hat perched on their heads.

"Akatsuki," Sasuke growled, on edge and relieved at the same time.

"So it's true what they say," The male voice spoke in a dignified, mocking voice, "He _is _agenius."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the mockery, while the female laughed. "Hmm, indeed he is," She said, "But, I wonder how he _measures up _to Itachi."

"Tell me where Itachi is!" Sasuke immediately demanded.

The Akatsuki pair laughed. "What makes you think we're going to tell you, kid?" The female cackled.

"I'll kill you!" Sasuke hissed, his red eyes glinting in the moonlight.

"Is that so?" The woman asked. She began shuffling under her cloak, "Tch. Well then, I guess I'll get to see how you measure up to Itachi after all." She unbuttoned her cloak and threw it off, exposing her lithe, athletic body. She was dressed from head to toe in a tight, black garment, making it hard for Sasuke to see her.. Next, she threw off her hat, letting her long purple hair flow in the wind, her bangs fluttering over the scratched out Hidden Waterfall headband around her forehead. She reached behind her back and pulled out something. Sasuke strained his eyes in the dark and saw the item she was holding was a bow. _An unorthodox weapon for a ninja._ The Uchiha analyzed in his head.

Next, the female pulled out an arrow from the quiver on her back. "This should be interesting," The male Akatsuki member spoke, "Can your perfect aim overcome the handicap of darkness?"

"I guess we'll find out," The female spoke, lining Sasuke up in her squinting gaze. Her arrow began to glow red.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. _Does she really think her arrow can beat my Sharingan? And is that guy planning on standing there the whole fight?_

FWOOM!

Sasuke gasped as the arrow was let loose and streaked at him hotly, faster than he had expected. His Sharingan saved him as he dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the burning projectile.

Already, the female was arming another arrow.

FWOOM!

Sasuke performed a no-handed cartwheel, dodging the second arrow while simultaneously pulling a handful of shuriken from his holster.

He landed on the ground and threw one shuriken. It clanged with another arrow in mid-air and stopped the enemy projectile.

He tossed another shuriken.

The female side-stepped it.

Sasuke charged and flung another shuriken to keep the woman from drawing another arrow. He reached her position with a fist raised, but had to duck as she swiped at his head with her bow. From his crouched position he swept his leg out.

The female jumped over his sweep. She drew an arrow in mid air, flipped over Sasuke, and landed behind him. She strung her bow and pivoted around just as Sasuke began to turn and stand up.

She pointed the blue glowing arrow right at his wide eye.

Sasuke hadn't expected her to draw so fast.

The blue glow of the arrow spread a frosty feeling over the Uchiha's face. _So, she can power up her arrows with the elements. _Sasuke mused as she glared at him down her arrow with flickering green eyes.

"We can't kill him." The stationary male stated, "Not unless you want Itachi to kill _us_."

"I know." The female said with a sultry smirk, "I was just having some fun." She stepped back from Sasuke, keeping her bow raised. Once she was a few feet away, she let her arrow-which had stopped glowing-go.

Sasuke flinched.

The arrow pierced his shirt and pinned him to the ground.

The woman twirled around. "Let's go! See ya later, Sasuke-_kun_!" The two Akatsuki began to walk away.

Sasuke growled from his prone position on the ground. He reached up to the arrow and roughly yanked it out of the ground, taking up a chunk of rock with it. He glared at the two retreating figures.

"You'll tell me where Itachi is…" he hissed. A red glow emanated from the back of his neck and spread across the left half of his body. The glow died down to reveal the tattoo-like pattern of the cursed seal, "_…Or I'll kill you!"_

!-!-!-!-!

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama."

…

"Hokage-sama!"

The zipper to the Hokage's tent came down and Tsunade poked her blonde head out. "What do you want, Kakashi?" She asked boredly.

The spiky haired Jounin raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure we should be stopping here? You do know how close we are to-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Tsunade waved him off, "Don't worry so much, we're far enough away, we wont run into any trouble."

"You're sure?" The Jounin questioned.

"Yes." Tsunade answered in an exasperated tone, "We have nothing to worry about. Now leave me alone and let me get some rest." With that, the Hokage went back into her tent and left Kakashi standing alone.

The jounin sighed. They had been traveling for a week. Usually, a trip to Hidden Cloud wouldn't take any longer than four or five days, but with so many people traveling at once, they had to slow down. At the moment, they had stopped to rest a for a few hours before moving on. They had just so happened to stop in a very precarious place, and Kakashi wasn't happy about it.

Kakashi sighed again. The only thing he could do was stay on guard and hope for the best.

!-!-!-!-!

"HA!"

Three shuriken flew through the air.

Naruto brought up a kunai and blocked all three easily. He spun, threw his leg out, and connected with Konohamaru-who had been approaching him on his blindside.

"_Doton: Soudai Tanima No Jutsu!"_

The ground under Naruto's feet shook. He jumped backwards and performed a flip in mid air as the earth spilt apart beneath him. As he landed safely away from the chasm in the ground, his foot slipped on a wire and the familiar sound of metal kissing air hit his ears.

He had fallen for one of their traps.

He flicked both of his wrist and a kunai flew out of each of his sleeves. He caught each in a hand and began spinning and swinging and blocking, blocking, blocking every single shuriken or kunai that came his way.

He spun to a stop and stood in a halo of fallen projectiles. He looked around at the three genin and their awed faces.

He gave them a smirk and a wink.

Each one of them gave a defeated sigh and fell to the ground.

Naruto began to chuckle. "You guys did better today." He complimented whilst holstering his kunai, "I wasn't expecting that earth jutsu. Which one of you did that?"

Moegi shyly raised her hand.

"Good." Naruto continued. He stuffed his hand into his pockets and pulled out the two prized scrolls. He juggled them before the three children tantalizingly before pocketing them again. "You guys almost had me." He smirked. "I've got to go talk to Sakura-chan, so I'll see you guys tomorrow." With that, the Chuunin gave the three genin a lazy wave and sauntered off back towards camp.

"It's no fair!" Moegi immediately exclaimed. "He should be going easier on us!"

"But if he goes easy on us, we won't be prepared for the Chuunin exam." Udon droned nasally.

"Shut up!"

The boy winced and did as he was told.

Moegi turned to Konohamaru, "Konohamaru-chan, what are we going to do?"

The dark haired boy was quiet, staring off into space.

"Konohamaru-chan?"

The boy slowly turned his head to look at her. He mouthed the words 'Sakura-chan' before beaming at Moegi. He giggled, "I've got a plan!"

!-!-!-!-!

Sakura slowly walked through the campsite, peering around and trying to find a familiar head of blond hair. For some reason, Kakashi had sent her to find Naruto, and he seemed pretty urgent about it. So far, the noisy ninja couldn't be found, and it was making Sakura worry.

She spotted Hinata and Neji sitting a few feet away, using the brief rest to eat lunch.

"Hey, have either of you seen Naruto?" Sakura asked as she approached the two Hyuuga.

Hinata immediately blushed. "Na-Naruto-kun?"

"He's over there, training those three kids." Neji answered with a slight curve to his lips, shaking his head at his cousins behavior.

"Thank you." Sakura said with a slight bow. She left the two alone and marched off towards a small path in the forest.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto walked through a small patch of forest and made his way back to camp. He swung his arms and bore a large grin. He had really been enjoying training those three kids. It was good training for him, plus it was fun. Naruto chuckled to himself as he remembered the looks on their faces every time they failed. They thought he was being mean to them, but really he was training them in the best way he knew how. By giving them a nearly impossible task, he was forcing them to get stronger, or they would fall behind. With an arrogant smirk, Naruto couldn't help but think about how awesome he was.

His ear twitched as he heard a breaking twig behind him.

He slowed to a stop, the grin falling off his face. From the sound of it, whoever was behind him was too big to be Konohamaru and his friends, and they seemed to be masking their presence.

He concentrated more chakra into his ears and his hearing spiked dramatically. He filtered out the sounds of the wilderness around him and could hear four distinct people surrounding him.

He could hear their breath.

He fingered the loop of one of his kunai.

Everything was still and quiet, except for the breathing of those around him.

Another step.

Naruto spun, pulled out his kunai, and threw it at a tree a few yards away. A ninja dressed in typical Sound garb gasped as the weapon struck him in the shoulder. The ninja fell backwards out of the tree.

"HA!"

"HA!"

"HA!"

Three more ninja jumped from the trees, converging on Naruto. The blond jumped forward, planted his feet on the first mid-air ninjas chest, and pushed off, simultaneously back flipping and sending his enemy flying backwards.

He flipped in the air, dodged two kunai from the other ninja, and landed horizontally against a tree. He tensed his legs pushed off the tree, and flew at the third Sound ninja. His fist stuck the ninja hard across the face.

Naruto landed on the ground next to the now passed out Sound and looked up to see the second and fourth ninja rushing him. The fourth one reached him first and got a hard kick to the stomach as his prize. Naruto grabbed the ninja as he bent over and clutched his stomach, he spun and flung the injured ninja at his charging comrade. Both ninja collapsed to the ground with a groan.

Naruto let out a long, slow breath and relaxed his body.

"Naruto!"

He immediately tensed up again. He turned around and saw Sakura running towards him.

"Naruto, what happened?" She eyed the fallen Sound ninja warily.

"These sound bastards came out of nowhere and attacked me." Naruto answered, relaxing again. "Go get the Hokage, I'll tie them up and make sure they don't get away."

Sakura nodded and ran back towards the camp while Naruto pulled a couple of lengths of rope and went to work tying up the enemies.

!-!-!-!-!

An hour later and the entire group of ninja was on the move again. After Naruto's news about the attacking Sound nin, Tsunade had immediately ordered everyone to pack up and take off at top speed.

"What the hell were you thinking you old hag?" Naruto exclaimed as he ran alongside the Hokage. "If you knew we were close to the Hidden Sound Village, why the hell would you make us stop!"

"You don't understand, kid." Tsunade answered, "We _weren't _near Hidden Sound, we were in a whole other country."

"Then why the hell was I attacked?"

"Shut up!" Tsunade hissed, "I don't want people to know you were attacked, if word gets around, people will start to worry."

"You didn't answer my question." Naruto continued hotly and just as loud.

"We weren't anywhere near Hidden Sound, but we were close enough that if Orochimaru wanted, he could send a team of ninja after us."

Naruto opened his mouth to interject.

"Just shut and listen for once okay? Don't interrupt." The Hokage growled.

Naruto glared but kept quiet.

"The thing is, the only way Orochimaru could have known we would be here at this time, is if he had a spy in Konoha who told him when we left."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Yeah, that's right kid. I'm not stupid. I stopped here because I know there's a spy somewhere in Konoha, and the fact that you were attacked proves it."

Naruto glanced back and around him at the other ninja. "Is the spy here somewhere?"

"No," Tsunade said with a shake of her head, "Whoever they are, I know they are still back at the village. Those ninja who attacked you were obviously scouts, which means they were sent here to wait for us to show up and then report back to a larger group of attack ninja. That means they didn't know our exact position, and if the spy were here, they would know exactly where we were."

"So what are we going to do?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing…at least not yet. We are going to go about our business as usual."

Naruto nodded, "Whenever you find that spy, make sure to tell me so I can kick his ass."

!-!-!-!-!

"_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"_

Sasuke spewed a fireball out of his half-scarred face and lit up the surrounding area.

"Oh?" The female questioned in an amused tone, "It looks like he isn't going to stay down like a good boy." The fire blazed around her, but didn't come in contact.

Sasuke wasn't aiming for her.

The grass surrounding the path they were on was now on fire, chasing away the darkness and making it easier for him to fight.

"It looks like he's fighting more serious now," the male Akatsuki mused out loud as he eyed the Curse Mark spread over half of Sasuke's body.

"Tch. Like I care." The woman muttered as she drew an arrow, "That just means I'll have to stop holding back."

"Don't expect me to help, you know I'm not the battle type."

"Tch. I already knew that, go ahead and play some games or something, I don't need you."

Sasuke growled. He pulled out two kunai, spun each in his hand, and charged the woman. He flung one of his kunai as she launched an arrow. They clanged in mid air and flew in opposite directions.

The woman drew another arrow, spun, and kicked her leg out as Sasuke arrived at her position. Sasuke ducked the leg.

The female spun back around and had an arrow ready to pierce Sasuke's heart.

Sasuke had already been forming seals. "_Doton: Tsuchikasui No Jutsu!"_

A spike of earth rose up between the two combatants, slamming into the female and piercing through her midsection. The spike rose up further, the woman still skewered on the tip. She gasped and sputtered and coughed up blood, trying futilely to pry herself off the spike.

Sasuke smirked.

The male Akatsuki began laughing, causing Sasuke to look over in surprise. The man pointed back up to the spike and Sasuke saw the dying woman stop struggling and slowly she fell apart and turned into water.

"A water replacement?" Sasuke cursed out loud.

FWOOM!

A burning sensation in his leg. Sasuke looked down and saw a flaming arrow embedded into his leg.

"RAAAUUUGGGHHH!" He screamed as he fell to the ground, clutching at the burning arrow. It burned his hand as he grasped at it. He bit down on his tongue, drawing blood in his mouth. "RAAAAAHHHH!" He yanked the projectile out bloodily.

"Hehehehehe!" A giggling came from behind him. Sasuke turned around a saw the female approaching him with her bow raised. "That was too easy, Sasuke-kun." She spoke in a falsely sugary tone. Sasuke's entire face was contorted in pain, but he still managed to glare at the woman. "I hate to disappoint Itachi, but I'm going to have to kill you."

The woman prepared to shoot the arrow.

Sasuke shut his eyes.

The ground began to rumble.

FWOOM!

Sasuke's eyes widened as the arrow shot by his head and missed.

The ground continued to rumble, the woman lost her balance and fell. There was a grand whooshing sound as a miniature tornado flew into the battle zone.

Sasuke gasped.

"It's him!" Shouted the male Akatsuki member.

A hand flew out of the tornado and grabbed Sasuke by the shoulder. He was pulled into the whirling vortex and found himself being carried away at impossible speeds.

He lost track of time in the dizzying whirl, but it couldn't have been more than five seconds when everything stopped and he fell to the ground.

"Messing with those two is dangerous, you know." A man behind him spoke.

Sasuke turned his head and saw the tall, white haired physique of Shoukan Kishi, the man he had been looking for.

"…You saved me?" the boy hissed. He tried standing up, but got a painful reminder that an arrow had been shot through his leg.

"Yes. I told you once before that I committed terrible sins in the past. As such, it is my duty to do all that I can to redeem myself, even if that means saving you."

Sasuke gazed down at his own body and remembered that he hadn't disguised himself. "So…y-you knew it was me at that b-bar?"

"Yes." Kishi answered. He tilted his head down to get a better look at the Uchiha. "I didn't really know who you were, but I sensed you were disguising yourself. I also know you've been following me for the past week."

Sasuke winced.

"But, it's not my place to ask questions. I haven't earned the right." The man continued. He walked forward and passed Sasuke. The Uchiha looked up at the passing man, noticing his eyes glinting yellow in the moonlight, like an animal's.

"You're a fool," Sasuke hissed. Kishi stopped, but didn't turn around. "All this talk of redemption and past sins. It's all idiotic!"

Kishi stood still for just a minute, before walking forward. "You know nothing." He spat back. An unnatural wind swept him off the ground and spun him into a tornado. The gust of wind blurred him away at blinding speed, leaving Sasuke alone to bleed.

!-!-!-!-!

For nearly thirty minutes he sat there, bleeding out of the wound on his leg. Not once did he attempt to move. After thirty minutes under the moon, he was starting to shiver and shake from blood loss.

"A-Are y-y-you just going to stand th-there, or ar-are you going to heal my wounds?" Sasuke stuttered to the seemingly empty air.

A rustling sound to his side and Kabuto stepped out of the brush. "Apologies, Sasuke-kun, but it took me a while to find you. That man has great speed."

"I-I-I d-don't care." Sasuke hissed, "Ju-just hea-heal me!"

Kabuto nodded with a small smile, dropping down to his knees with glowing hands and tending to Sasuke's wounds. "I apologize for not helping you earlier."

"S-s-stop apologizing."

Kabuto nodded. "So what do you plan to do now?"

"_We_ will continue after Kishi, and next time we run into Akatsuki, we will force them to tell me where my brother is."

"Of course." Kabuto muttered. He finished healing the wound and pulled out a pouch of pills. He took one out and held it out to Sasuke. "A blood replenishing pill. You really should learn some Medical Jutsu with that Sharingan of yours. If you had stayed out here any longer you would have died of blood loss."

"Whatever." Sasuke said. He popped the pill and munched on it. He stood up and flexed his healed leg. "Let's go!"

* * *

Techniques I created used in this chapter:

_Doton: Soudai Tanima No Jutsu / Earth Style: Grand Chasm Technique_

_Doton: Tsuchikasui No Jutsu / Earth Style: Earth Spike Technique_


	18. Scrolls!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, or added this story to thier alerts or favorites.

* * *

"Danzou-sama! Danzou-sama!"

The old man looked up from the papers on his desk, calmly arching an eyebrow as one of his ANBU came barreling into his office. "Now, now," Danzou spoke calmly, "Is that anyway to dress your superiors?"

The ANBU stopped for a minute and took a deep breath to compose himself. "I apologize, Danzou-sama." He bowed and the old man nodded in acceptance.

"Now, what is it you had to tell me?" The old man asked.

"While talking to a member of the mainstream ANBU, he leaked some sensitive information to me," The ANBU explained in a monotone voice, "It seems Kyanon, a small village towards the north of here, was slaughtered and burned to the ground."

Danzou raised his one visible eyebrow. "And does the Hokage know of this?"

"Yes she does." the ANBU answered, "She has apparently been keeping it hidden from everyone else, only a few people know."

Danzou leaned back in his chair and stroked his beard with his good arm. "Thank you for sharing this with me, you can go now." He said in a distracted voice.

The ANBU stood still for a minute, "Forgive me Danzou-sama, I know it is not my place to ask questions, but what do you plan to do about this?"

Danzou focused sharply on his ANBU, "You are right, it is not your place to ask questions! As one of my special ROOT ANBU, I would think you would be smart enough to know how valuable information such as this is treated!"

The ANBU was quiet for a moment, then seemed to understand. "Information obtained from the enemy without their knowledge is only valuable if used at the right time." He recited as if reading from a book.

"Exactly!" Danzou exclaimed with growing excitement. "We will use this information at the right time to turn the people against Tsunade and Konoha will be ours!"

"Excellent, Danzou-sama!" The ANBU said while bowing low, "I shall leave you to plan." With that, the ANBU backed out of the room.

Danzou leaned back into his chair again, stroking his beard. "You make it so easy, Tsunade." He paused, "…Perhaps a bit _too _easy."

!-!-!-!-!

"_Konohamaru-chan?_"

Silence

"_Konohama-_"

"Sshh! I can't talk now, Moegi! She might hear me!" Konohamaru hissed into the small radio he was carrying with him.

The dark haired boy stalked slowly down a small path, ducking behind trees and bushes every once in a while to make sure his target didn't see him.

It had been nearly a week since the Sound ninja had attacked Naruto and forced the entire camp to move. Of course, Konohamaru wasn't supposed to know about the Sound ninja attack, but Naruto had a big mouth. There were only a few more days of travel until they arrived at the Hidden Cloud village for the Chuunin exam, and still Konohamaru and his team hadn't been able to get the scrolls from Naruto.

That was when Konohamaru had decided to enact his brilliant plan to get the scrolls. It was very dangerous plan, but Konohamaru thought it was worth it. Part one of his brilliant plan involved trailing a certain pink haired kunoichi who had a penchant for pounding foolish males on occasion. He was following her as she walked to her tent, where he knew she would be changing clothes form a long day of traveling..

It was a very dangerous plan indeed. But still Konohamaru pressed on, knowing full well that if Sakura caught him she would give him the beating of his life.

The young genin stealth fully followed her as she arrived at her tent. The girl gave one more look over her shoulder, causing Konohamaru to quickly press himself against a tree and cover himself with his cloaking cloth.

With a shrug, Sakura got into her tent and zipped it up.

Konohamaru threw off his cloth and began sneaking forward.

This was the hardest part of his plan.

He crouched low to the ground, hoping that Sakura wouldn't see his shadow outside of her tent. He slowly crept forward and grabbed the zipper to her tents entrance.

He slowly moved it up an inch.

The rustling sounds in Sakura's tent stopped.

Konohamaru winced and stopped all movement.

There was a small pause, and then the rustling sound in the tent continued.

Konohamaru let out small sigh and lifted the zipper up another inch.

The movement in Sakura's tent continued.

Konohamaru smirked to himself. He had opened up a big enough hole in the tent to peek in through. He slowly put his eye to hole in the zipper.

He froze. His eyes widened. He saw what he had come for. Sakura was in her tent, in the process of getting dressed. The boy had a terrible vantage point, yet he still couldn't take his eyes off her form. His nose began to bleed. The plan only called for him to get a sneak peek at her, but he couldn't tear his eyes away.

Before he knew it, Sakura was fully dressed again, and he was left in a state of panic. The kunoichi turned towards the entrance of her tent.

Konohamaru's eyes widened even further. He quickly pulled out his cloaking cloth, rolled away from Sakura's tent and cloaked himself with the ground.

Sakura stepped out of her tent, fully dressed.

Konohamaru lay still on the ground, not even daring to breath.

Sakura looked around and began walking away from her tent.

Konohamaru let out his breath and relaxed.

Part one of the plan was complete.

!-!-!-!-!

"Konohamaru-chan! I don't like you looking at that ugly woman like that!"

"It was what I had to do, Moegi! I didn't like it!"

"Your nose is bleeding again."

"SHUT UP, UDON!"

"Don't be mad, Moegi, this is going to help us get the scrolls, remember?"

"…Okay."

"Good, now you both know your jobs, right?"

"I distract Sakura-san."

"And I lead Naruto into the trap."

"Good, let's go!"

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto sat in his tent, boredly sharpening his kunai and shuriken. It was a practice he had always held since he was a child. Every time he had tried to get his kunai professionally sharpened or replaced, he would always get rejected. So, he taught himself to take care of his weapons himself at an early age. He found over the years that it helped him distract his mind and relax. It was boring, but in a way he enjoyed doing it.

"Naruto-kun!"

He paused as a high pitched voice shouted his name. He looked up to see a short, feminine shadow standing outside of his tent.

"Naruto-kun, I need to talk to you." The voice was sugary sweet and made Naruto raise an eyebrow. He tossed down his weapons and tools and crawled over to the entrance of his tent. He slowly unzipped it and saw Moegi grinning at him sweetly. "Come on, Naruto-kun." She urged him.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, wary of her sweet attitude.

The girl giggled, "Sakura-san sent me to find you. She said she wants to talk to you."

Naruto brightened, "Sakura-chan?" He questioned excitedly, stumbling out of the tent.

Moegi beamed at him and gave him an enthusiastic nod. "Follow me and I'll take you to her!"

Naruto allowed the girl to grab him by the hand and lead him away from their campsite. He didn't question her as she took him onto the small path that lead to a small stream. Eventually, they arrived on location. "Sakura-san told me to bring you here. She wants you to wait for her." Moegi explained.

"Hey, hey, did Sakura-chan say why she wanted to meet me here?" Naruto questioned anxiously.

Moegi shook her head, "She didn't explain it to me…" The girl looked up at Naruto and gave him a wink, "But I think it has something to do with _love._"

Naruto's jaw dropped.

Moegi giggled and began to walk away. "I'll leave the two of you alone."

Naruto heard a splashing sound from behind him and turned around. His jaw dropped even further, threatening to hit the ground.

Sakura had appeared in the stream behind him. How? Naruto didn't know. And really, he didn't care, because Sakura was wearing a small two piece swimsuit, and the sight of her threw his mind into babbling chaos.

The pink haired kunoichi giggled. She slowly began to step out of the stream and approach Naruto. "What do you think, Naruto?" She said, holding her arms out and spinning around slowly, "Does it look good one me?"

Naruto's mouth worked up and down slowly.

Sakura giggled again. She reached forward and grabbed his chin, pushing it close for him. "You're so cute, Naruto-_kun_!" Sakura continued.

Naruto's eyes widened at the proximity of her scantily clad body to his. He didn't know what to do.

His nose began to bleed.

Sakura giggled…_again._ If Naruto was capable of coherent though at the time, he would have realized that he had never heard Sakura, or any other woman, giggle so much. "Why won't you say something, Naruto-kun?" Sakura asked. Her hand trailed away from his face, down his chest, and to his waist, where she slipped it into his pocket and grabbed…_something. _Two _somethings'_s

"S-s-sakura-chyan?" Naruto gasped.

Sakura laughed again, but this time it was less of a giggle, and more of a boyish chuckle. The loosely clothed girl stepped back, pulling the two scrolls out of Naruto's pocket as she did so. She chuckled again, this time definitely in a more boyish voice. "Ha ha. We got you, Naruto!"

Naruto's face feel into a quizzical gaze.

Sakura popped into a puff of smoke.

Naruto gasped.

The smoke dissipated and Konohamaru stood proud and tall, holding up two fingers in the shape of a 'V' for victory.

Naruto's eyes went from quizzical and wide, to angry and narrow as he put he began to comprehend the situation. "Konohamaru…!" Naruto seethed.

The dark haired boy looked up from his victory dance to see a Naruto with red tinted eyes glaring at him. His dance faltered.

Naruto lunged at him.

!-!-!-!-!

Back at the camp site, Shikamaru and Temari sat around a game of chess.

Shikamaru rested his chin in his hand gazing at the board with narrow eyes.

He moved his hand out and hovered it over a piece.

Temari raised a fine eyebrow.

Shikamaru hovered his hand for a minute, then drew it back.

Temari sighed.

Over to the side, Gaara watched the game with mild interest. Kankurou stared off into the cloudy skies.

A silent pause.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Konohamaru rushed by in a blur, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"KOOOONOOOHAAAAAAMAAAARUUUU!" Naruto ran , jumped over the stationary chess board, and chased after the genin.

Gaara and Kankurou watched in shock as the two loud ninja ran by.

Shikamaru and Temari continued to stare at the board, unperturbed.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto glared at the three genin as they prostrated themselves before him. Each of the three kids had a rather large lump on their head.

"We're very, very sorry, Naruto-sama." Konohamaru apologized for what had to be the one hundredth time. He slowly looked up at Naruto. Naruto glared back. Konohamaru began to chuckle nervously, "You-eh heh heh-have to admit, it was a pretty good way to get the scrolls."

"Ye-yeah!" Moegi began, "Isn't that what ninja are supposed to do? Use tricks and sneakiness to get their goals. You should be proud of us!"

Udon stared at Naruto fearfully. He quickly pointed at Konohamaru, "It was all his idea!" He accused.

Konohamaru's eyes widened.

Naruto continued to glare. He raised his hands and cracked his knuckles.

!-!-!-!-!

Konohamaru groaned on the ground as Naruto walked away from him. He had a few extra lumps on his head now.

"Oh Konohamaru-chan, are you okay?" Moegi asked as she stroked his head.

Konohamaru groaned again. "It's okay, Moegi, I got off lucky. If that pink haired lady found out what I did, she probably would have killed me."

Moegi gulped. She looked over to Udon, who gave her a sheepish shrug.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto angrily stomped through the campsite, his narrowed eyes still slightly tinted with red.

"Naruto? What's wrong?"

Naruto paused in his stomping, his eyes widening. He slowly turned his head and saw a fully clothed Sakura sitting on a log around a fire, eating a small dinner.

The blond boy couldn't help it, he blushed. Furiously.

Sakura raised an eyebrow, but her next question was cut off as Naruto dashed off.

Naruto ran off as fast as he could. He had to do something to take his mind off the scene by the stream. Sure, he knew it was Konohamaru, but it still _looked _like Sakura. As he rushed to his tent, he tried to decide on something to distract his mind.

…Perhaps sharpening his kunai would help?


	19. Arrival!

Sorry this chapter took so long. School has started for me and that affected alot of things. Mainly, it meant having to adjust to a new schedule, which means I don't have all the free time of summer anymore. Now that I've managed to adapt to school, updates should becoming regularly. I can't pop them out at the 2-3 times a week pace I had over summer, but I'm hoping I'll be able to update at least once a week.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed or added this story to thier alerts, favorites, or c2.

**!-!-!-!-!**

"Ah, so here it is, Hidden Cloud village. It's been a while since I've been here."

Naruto turned to look at Kakashi. "Really, Kakashi-sensei, you've been here before?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, but last time I was here it was under…different circumstances."

"Wow," Naruto said, turning forward. He missed the dark look that passed through Kakashi's one visible eye. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, can I ask you something about Hidden Cloud village?" Naruto turned to the jounin.

"Sure." Kakashi answered with a helpful nod.

Naruto turned and pointed dramatically. "WHERE THE HELL IS IT?"

Kakashi nearly collapsed and nearby people jumped at Naruto's spontaneous yelling. Naruto was pointing at the mountain range in front of them. There was clearly not a ninja village anywhere in sight. Kakashi sighed and shook his head. He grabbed Naruto's pointing hand and tilted it upward to the top of one of the shorter mountains. "It's up there, on top of that mountain."

"Geez, you're really dense, aren't you?" Shikamaru droned as he passed by the two. Naruto glared at him.

"We're not going to have to climb up there, are we Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura questioned on the other side of the jounin.

Kakashi jumped. He hadn't known she was there. "Uh, no. There's a path on the other side that we can go up."

"Oh," Sakura said simply, "Then someone better stop Lee."

Kakashi began to open his mouth and question her, then his eye caught sight of something.

"YOOOOOSSSSSSHHHH!" Rock Lee screamed as he ran at the mountain in a blur of green. "I WILL CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THIS MOUNTAIN ONE HANDED AND CARVE A PATH FOR MY WEARY COMPANIONS!.!.!.!.,"

Kakashi glanced over at team Gai. Gai himself was expectedly rooting Lee on with as much hot-blooded fervor as usual. Tenten and Neji choose to bury their faces in their hands.

Naruto scratched his blond head in confusion as he watched Lee toss himself at the mountain. "Is it even possible to climb a mountain one handed?"

Apparently it was, and Lee was doing a damn good job of it.

A hearty chuckle went through the large group of traveling ninja, along with a few impressed murmurings from the younger ninja.

"You Konoha guys sure do have some weird ninja."

Team seven turned and saw the Sand trio trailing behind them. It was Kankurou who had spoken.

"You're one to talk." Naruto said, staring at the Sand jounin with narrow eyes. "You play with dolls."

There was a silence around them. Kankurou grit his teeth and glared at Naruto.

Temari bust out laughing.

Gaara tipped his Kage hat down to hid his small smile.

Kankurou turned his glare on his two siblings, sighed in frustration, and stomped off mumbling about 'blond haired brats' and 'useless siblings with pointy hats'.

"Now, Naruto," Kakashi began in an admonishing tone, "That's no way to speak to our allies."

Naruto shrugged, "Whatever, I never liked that guy anyways." He casually glanced up at the mountain side and saw that someone had somehow got Lee down. "Anyways, I'm just glad we're finally here."

"Well, it'll still take us a couple of hours to get _up _the mountain." Kakashi spoke.

Sakura sighed next to him, "Why the hell did they have to put their village on top of a mountain?"

"It makes it…easier to defend." Kakashi answered.

The trio continued on walking quietly with the rest of their group. Naruto continuously glanced at the top of the mountain. He could distantly see the specks of buildings. They continued walking on quietly, arcing around the base of the mountain and coming upon a path that spiraled around it to the top.

Naruto glanced up at the cloudy skies around him.

He glanced up at the mountain top that contained the village.

With a shrug he kept walking on.

An hour and a half later, the group was still working their way up the mountain.

Suddenly, Naruto gasped.

Kakashi and Sakura turned to him.

"I get it!" He exclaimed, "It's called Hidden Cloud cause it's on a mountaintop…_in the clouds!"_

Kakashi nearly fell…again.

Sakura glared at the ecstatic Naruto. She slowly began to crack her knuckles. "Naruto…you are… such an IDIOT!"

!-!-!-!-!

"You see, our village is called Hidden Leaf because it's surrounded by a forest…_with leaves._ Gaara's village is called Hidden Sand because it's in a desert…_with sand. _And this village is called Hidden Cloud because it's on top of a mountain…_in the clouds._" Naruto explained all of this eagerly to Konohamaru and his friends. All three of them looked at him with varying levels of confusion.

"Um… we already knew that, Chief." Konohamaru said.

Naruto's face fell. "How the hell did you figure it out?"

"It's pretty obvious, Naruto-kun." Moegi simpered.

"Plus, they told us about it in the Academy," Udon added nasally.

Naruto crossed his arms and frowned.

"Hey, hey, boss." Konohamaru began uncertainly, "Wh-when are you going to teach us those secret techniques?"

Naruto glared at the boy. "I don't know, I'm still kind of pissed at you."

Konohamaru gulped. "But you've got to train us. If you don't we'll fail."

Naruto shrugged and walked away from the three genins with a sour expression on his face.

!-!-!-!-!

"Naruto, stop fidgeting!"

Naruto stood on his tiptoes trying to see over the ninja in front of him.

"Naruto, you're going to make the Raikage think you're an idiot!"

Naruto groaned and fell back on his feet like normal. The entire group of ninja had been forced to line up and stand in formation as Tsunade and Gaara conversed with the Raikage.

They had finally made it to Hidden Cloud village.

And Naruto couldn't see a damn thing.

A rather tall Sand ninja stood in front of him.

"I can't help it, Sakura-chan, I want to see what this Raikage guy looks like." Naruto whined.

"You'll see later," Sakura hissed to him, "Now stop acting like a dumbass."

Naruto growled and crossed his arms. He waited a few more minutes as the Kages continued to talk. Eventually, Tsunade and Gaara came back and addressed the group of ninja. "All right, everyone!" Tsunade shouted. "We've finally arrived. We'll be shown to our lodgings, and then we'll discuss the exam schedule! Now let's go!"

Tsunade turned around and marched into Hidden Cloud village without a second thought. Gaara nodded to the group of ninja and followed his fellow Kage. The rest of the group followed them, some hesitantly, and some with a high amount of nonchalance.

!-!-!-!-!

Hidden Cloud village.

It really wasn't anything special. Or at least that's what Naruto thought. Although he had traveled all over the continent with Jiraiya, he had never steeped in another Ninja village. When he had finally saw the stark contrast from the clean beautiful streets of Konoha to the dry, dusty lanes of Suna, he thought that all Hidden villages would contain something new and exciting to behold.

This wasn't really true about Hidden Cloud.

The buildings and everything else were vary similar to those of Konoha. The main difference being that the buildings here seemed to be more oriented towards the sky. They were all tall with various types of spires pointing upwards.

There was a constant layer of frost on the ground, as well as on top of the roofs of some buildings, which Naruto reasoned came from being at such a high altitude. Besides those details, Hidden Cloud didn't really seem much different than Hidden Leaf. Even the people looked the same.

"This…isn't very impressive." Naruto voiced his thoughts.

Sakura elbowed him in the side. "Don't say things like that, you might offend the people here." She eyed a few fearsome look Cloud jounin standing outside a building. She waved at them nervously with an overly sugary smile.

The jounin glared at her.

"I don't think they like us anyways, Sakura-chan." Naruto said simply. He continued walking with his arms folded behind his head, "I'm just saying that this looks a lot like Konoha. If I knew it was going to be so unimpressive, I would have stayed home and trained."

"You _always _train, Naruto." Sakura said with an exasperated roll of her eyes, "It wont hurt you to do something interesting like traveling to another village."

"Training _is_ interesting." Naruto replied in an offended tone, "Plus, I spent two and a half years traveling."

Sakura thought, but remained silent. He had her there.

"Alright, everyone!" Tsunade shouted from the head of their group. "This is it!"

The group stopped in front of a large hotel. Naruto looked up at the impressive building and saw a giant sign identifying it as 'The Could Nine Hotel'.

"The Raikage has been generous enough to rent out this entire hotel for all of us!" The Hokage continued shouting, "Iikagen Ninshou," She gestured to a small man that had gone unnoticed by most of the ninja, "Is the proprietor of this place and will be in charge of handing out rooms!" The man waved shyly. "Now, once everyone has gotten settled into their room, meet in the dining hall for a meeting! No wandering off just yet!" She ended that last statement with a note of finality and the group of ninja went off to get things in order. Some ran off to Ninshou quickly to try and get their room first. Other held back and chatted with their friends.

!-!-!-!-!

Rooms had been given out, Ninja had been settled in them, and-surprisingly-it all went down smoothly.

There _was _an incident between Temari and Ino, but that's not important.

Anyways, after they had all been settled in, the various Sand and Leaf shinobi gathered down in the dining hall for the meeting with their Kages.

"Now that we are all here, and all rooming issues have been resolved," The Hokage glared towards Temari and Ino, "It's time for us to run down the schedule and duties for this exam." There were a few groans at the word 'duties', "First of all, the First Exam starts tomorrow." Some genins twitched at that. "Before that, though, there will be a ceremonial party held tonight which you all _must_ attend." Shikamaru sighed somewhere in the crowd. "I expect you all to dress nicely and be on your best behavior. Remember, you are representing your village!"

A collective nod went through the crowd.

"Now, as I said, the first exam will start tomorrow. Even I don't know what it is, so you genin better be prepared for anything. The Second exam will start two days after the first. Once again, the contents of this exam are a closely guarded secret. After that, you will have a month to prepare for the Third exam. The Third exam will be a tournament for those who made it through the first two, just like it always is. Any questions on all of that?"

No one said anything.

"Okay then, now for the rules. First of all, no genin will be allowed to walk around Hidden Cloud alone. They must always be accompanied by a Chuunin or a jounin."

Naruto groaned.

Sakura elbowed him. "You're a Chuunin now, remember?"

"Continuing on," The Hokage…continued, "There will be no fighting whatsoever! The Raikage has invited us here for a peace treaty, and I don't want that to be ruined. Some of the Cloud ninja might not like us, and you might not like them, but I wont have this chance ruined! Any questions?"

No one said anything.

"Good," Tsunade nodded, "Do you have anything to add, Kazekage-sempai?"

Gaara shook his head.

"Alright then, the party starts in two hours, I want you all down here and ready in one. Dismissed!"

!-!-!-!-!

In an unknown corner of Cloud Village.

In a dark, smoky room.

Around fifty Cloud ninja were gathered.

"This is it!" One of them exclaimed, "This is our chance to strike back at the Konoha scum!"

"And we can take down that peace lovin' Raikage while we're at it!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"OK!

"Excuse me, gentlemen." A voice interrupted the chorus of agreement. All the rowdy cloud ninja turned to the new voice. There was a new man standing at the back of the group, his figure was hidden by the darkness of the room.

"Who the hell are you!" The authority figure of the rouge ninja demanded.

"Me? I'm just a man seeking your help." The shadowed man answered.

"We ain't helping nobody!" The cloud nin shouted.

The man titled his head up and revealed red eyes. "You don't really have a choice."


	20. Wayward Clouds!

The three month anniversary of this fic passed and I almost forgot about it. 20 Chapters, nearly 55,000 words. 50 reviews, nearly 23,000 hits. Added to 4 c2's, 38 favorites, and 49 alerts lists. I think that's pretty damn good, considering I'm not even half way done yet. Humongous thanks to everyone who has supported this story in any way. I really, really appreciate it.

**!-!-!-!-!**

The Raikage's tower was much different than the Hokage's counterpart in Konoha. In Konoha, the Hokage's tower was an administrative building, used to assign missions and govern the village. Physically, it was just a standard tower, built in the style of all the other buildings of Konoha.

Alternatively, the Raikage's tower seemed to be more like a palace. It was the tallest building in the entire village, ornately built with large glass window and beautifully carved wooden doors.

As Naruto entered this building with his fellow Konoha and Sand ninja, he was reminded of a less extravagant version of the Fire lord's palace.

The blond boy adjusted his clothes as he stepped through the doors of the tower. He was dressed in silky, orange and black formal wear for the occasion. He had slept through the briefing back in Konoha and had missed out on the information that formal wear would be needed. Luckily, he had been able to find a place in the village to purchase some at the last minute.

He and his similarly dressed comrades were lead through the fancy tower by a guide. Eventually, they arrived in a large circular room that was surrounded on all sides by large glass windows. There was already a big group of ninja in the room. A glance at a few forehead protectors around the room and Naruto realized that the other ninja were from Hidden Rock, Cloud and Mist.

"Wow, there's a lot of them." Naruto muttered.

Next to him, Sakura shrugged, "That's about the same amount who participated in our first exam."

Naruto scratched his head as their group was ushered into the room. "I guess."

"Ah, Hokage-sama, I'm glad you could make it." Naruto glanced over and saw a man approaching their group, specifically heading to Tsunade. He was clad in a white kage robe with the edges done in yellow. "And you too, Kazekage-sama."

Both Tsunade and Gaara stepped forward to bow to the man, which he returned respectfully. "Raikage-sama." Tsunade greeted.

The Raikage was a youthful man. Not as young as Gaara, but definitely not as old as Tsunade. He had a thin, sharp face. His eyes were static blue like the symbol of his country. Underneath his tri-corner hat a bit blond hair could be seen.

Naruto was surprised by the mans appearance. Most kage he knew were old-with the exception of Gaara of course.

"Come, Tsunade, Gaara." The Raikage addressed the other two leaders casually, "We have business to discuss. Your ninja can mingle and chat with the others who are taking the exam."

Tsunade and Gaara nodded and walked away, towards a table where two other figures in kage attire could be seen.

Naruto looked around at the giant room they were in. Nobody had made a move yet. There was something about the room that was out of place with him.

"Where are all the other jounin at?" He questioned out loud to his peers. "Besides us, all I see are kids."

"This ceremony is usually only for the genin." Kakashi answered, causing Naruto to jump slightly. He hadn't known the jounin was there. "It's supposed to be a way for them to get to know each other before the exam. This year, Tsunade insisted that us Jounin and Chuunin come for extra protection."

"Then why the hell did we _all _have to dress up?" Naruto questioned angrily, pulling at his formal attire.

Kakashi shrugged, "Don't complain, just do your job." He titled his head back to look at the genins in the group. "You kids go and mingle with your competition. There's no need to be afraid of them…yet." A few kids gulped at that, but took a few brave steps forward all the same.

Naruto sighed, "I guess I'll just…stand around then."

"Good." Kakashi nodded. The jounin walked away.

!-!-!-!-!

"Hey, Sakura-chan, who's that old guy over there?"

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed, clamping her hand over his mouth. "That's the Tsuchikage. He's the leader of the Hidden Rock village. Don't talk bad about him like that."

"_He's _the Tsuchikage?" Naruto asked incredulously. "But he's so old, older than the third was."

And indeed the Tsuchikage was old. He sat at the table with all the other Kages in a wheelchair. His face was so wrinkled and old that you couldn't make out any defining features. He had a ridiculously long gray beard that trailed from his face down into his lap.

"In Hidden Rock, Tsuchikage is a life long position. You don't quit until you die." Sakura explained, "That's why he's so old. That man standing behind him is his successor." She continued, pointing to a tall, broad shouldered man, "Once the current Tsuchikage dies, he'll take over."

"Wow, Sakura-chan, you're really smart!" Naruto complimented the girl.

"I'm not that smart," Sakura replied with a slight blush, "You're just stupid."

Naruto shrugged at that. He turned away from the Tsuchikage back to the genin he was supposed to be protecting. However, there was nothing to protect them from. They had all just been walking around, talking to each other. He did note that a few of them seemed to be uneasy about talking to their competition. Secretly, Naruto was hoping that tensions would rise and there would be a fight for him to break up. Anything was better than just standing around and watching them.

"I'm so bored!" Naruto whined.

Sakura sighed in frustration. "That's the ninth time you've said that in the past hour. If you don't shut up, I'm going to pound you!"

"I can't help it, Sakura-chan, this is soo boring." Naruto continued despite the threat, "I just wish something would happen already."

"Don't say that," Sakura warned, "They say it's bad luck when a ninja says that."

Naruto stared at her incredulously, "Oh really? What's the worst that could happen?"

_CRASH!_

Naruto quickly turned at the sound. His blue eyes were treated with the sight of nearly fifty Cloud ninja diving in through one of the, now broken, windows of the room. The entire room was bathed in silence as the rouge ninja took their stances.

There was a long tense moment as everyone wondered what was going on. Then:

"KILL THE KONOHA SCUM!" A rouge ninja shouted. The rest of the enemies screamed their agreement, charging the nearest Konoha or Sand ninja they could find.

The first Konoha ninja was Konohamaru. He had been trying to chat up a silent ninja from the Hidden Rock.

A rouge approached him with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

Konohamaru flinched.

The enemy pulled out a kunai.

Konohamaru ducked his head and closed his eyes. His legs were shaking. And he waited…waited for it to come.

And it never did.

The genin cautiously opened his eyes. The sight of Naruto greeted him and Sakura standing in front of him, the Cloud ninja was on the ground.

"Konohamaru, you and the other kids get out of here." Naruto said without turning his back. Konohamaru nodded shakily and took off with his head ducked. It an instant the large room had turned into a mini war zone as the Konoha and Sand ninja tried to protect the genin.

Naruto turned to Sakura.

Sakura turned to Naruto.

They both nodded.

Naruto flicked his wrist and two kunai flew out of his selves and into his hands.

Sakura pulled her gloves out of a pocket on her prettiful pink dress.

Fully prepared, they charged fully into the fray.

!-!-!-!-!

Hyuuga Hanabi ran with her team, trying their best to get out of the room and get away from the attacking ninja.

"OHHHHHHHHHHH!" A green blur dashed around her and three cloud ninja fell to the ground.

Another green blur stopped next to the other one.

Gai and Lee stood tall and proud next to each other.

"Go on, young youths!" Gai dramatically addressed Hanabi and her group. "The green beasts of Konoha will take it from here!"

The genin team nodded and scurried off.

"LEE!" Gai addressed his student, "LET'S GO!"

"YOSH!"

Lee sped off and jumped into a large group of ninja. Two jumped him at once, but he deflected them with a single kick.

Another rouge stabbed at him.

Lee ducked the kunai and brought his leg up in a near vertical kick that connected with the mans chin.

Three more man approached him.

With a grin, the agile teen performed a back flip and landed in a handstand. As the enemies began to leap upon him, he pivoted his hands and began to spin with his legs flailing up in the air.

"KONOHA TSUNAMI!"

All three rouges were struck by his wildly spinning legs and were sent flying.

Lee flipped out of his handstand and landed flat on his butt. His head wobbled for a bit.

"Lee, you know that technique always makes you dizzy." Lee glanced up and saw the towering figure of Neji with Hinata timidly standing next to him. Neji's Byakugan gave him a clear view of the surrounding Cloud ninja. "Hinata-sama, let's go."

The shy girl nodded. The two of them turned away from each other and pressed their backs together, falling into identical stances.

The Cloud ninja around them were cautious in their attack.

"You've learned to fear the Hyuuga clan," Neji spoke to them with a confident smirk. "Now we will justify those fears. HA!"

The two Hyuuga dashed into the enemies. They attacked in a dizzying way. Working their way through the enemies in a cyclical pattern with palm strikes and chops. When they were finished, ten rouges dropped.

As they finished their assault, both Hyuuga's let out a deep breath.

_SWOOSH!_

A figure blurred by them.

Tenten ran quickly from her pursuers. _Dammit, I didn't think I would need to bring my equipment here, now I'm screwed. _The girl cursed herself internally. The room was large, but she was quickly running out of room to flee, and her comrades were too busy with their own battles.

She eyed one of the non-broken large windows of the room.

Her face broke out in a grin.

Improvisation was part of being a ninja.

She rushed the window and jumped at it. She reared back her fist and slammed it into the glass. Large cracks spider webbed on the surface, before the glass fully broke down into shards.

As Tenten began falling back to the ground, she spun around, snatching falling pieces of glass out of the air. Once she was back on the ground, she had a hand full of glass shards.

She wasted no time in beginning her assault.

_SHWOOSH!THUNK!_

A rouges should was pierced by a piece of glass

_SHWOSH!THUNK!_

Another was hit in the thigh.

Tenten continued on. Quickly and accurately driving back her attackers with glass 'shuriken'.

Across the room an explosion sounded as Temari hastily dodged one of her enemies lightening attacks. That same enemy reared back a hand full of shuriken. The blond kunoichi prepared to dodge, but stopped when her enemy froze in his place.

"It must be troublesome for you to be stuck in this place without your precious fan." Shikamaru droned. He still had his hands clasped in the seal of the _Kage Mane no Jutsu_.

Temari's eyes narrowed. "Shut up, bastard!" She seethed. She reached into a questionable fold of her clothes and pulled out two small fans. She jumped, spun in the air, and unleashed two small burst of air. _"KAMAITACHI!" _The cutting winds of her technique flew past Shikamaru and took down two rouges attacking him from behind. Temari landed, spun and took out the ninja Shikamaru was holding with his technique.

The blond arched a fine brow at the Nara boy.

Shikamaru didn't have time to say anything as the large body of Chouji stumbled by, wrestling with a large Cloud ninja. Chouji sidestepped the enemy's strong attacks. _"Baikai no Jutsu!" _The chubby Konoha ninja's arm grew in size as he drew it back. Chouji threw the arm forward in a devastating punch.

The Cloud ninja caught the punch easily. "I've got you know, fatass." He sneered.

Chouji's ear twitched and lightening ran arced through his eyes. "What did you-"

"_SHINRANSHIN NO JUTSU!"_

The Cloud ninja let go of Chouji's hand. "What the hell is going on!" He began to walk away from Chouji. "What's happening to me?" And he attacked his nearest comrade. "NO!"

Chouji looked over at the giggling form of Yamanaka Ino.

She winked at him.

"_GATSUUGA!"_

Two twisting blurs of fangs and claws zoomed past the two of them, tearing down any enemy in their path.

On another end of the room, Kankurou was staring down a large group of attackers. "Hey there." He waved at them casually. "I've got someone I'd like you to meet." He waved his hand forward and his puppet appeared on glowing blue strings. "This is Karasu." He turned to look at the puppet. "Karasu, these are the Cloud Ninja Asshole Squad. Now that all the pleasantries are out of the way, let's get started." With a twitch of his fingers, he made Karasu raise his hand. With another twitch that hand opened up into a blade dripping with poison.

Kankurou sent Karasu at the nearest Cloud rouge.

The man gasped and tried to dodge, but he was already being sliced by the poison blade.

Another Cloud rouge began forming seals. "_RAITON: DOUDOU RAIKOU!"_

Lightning exploded from the mans hand.

With practiced ease, Kankurou cut his chakra strings and jump dodged the lightning attack. In air, he stealthily attached a single string to Karasu. He flicked his pinky finger and Karasu's mouth opened and shot out a barrage of knives.

The rouges were taken by surprise. Some of them managed to dodge, but most fell to the attack.

Kankurou landed, fully attached the rest of his chakra strings, and went on the attack again. He halted when he heard a buzzing sound.

His remaining enemies paused also, which was a bad move because at that moment a swarm of bugs descended on them from the ceiling. They futilely tried to bat the swarm away, but the bugs attached themselves to their prey and begin to feed of their chakra.

"A long range fighter like you shouldn't be fighting so many enemies at close range, as your ally I saw it fit to help you in your battle."

Kankurou turned around and saw the jacketed form of Aburame Shino. He glared at the Konoha ninja and opened mouth to tell him just how much he _didn't _need help when an ear piercing howl interrupted him.

"OOOOOHHHHHHWWWWWW!" The twisting forms of Akamaru and Kiba tore through the enemies still trying to futiley swat the bugs off of them.

!-!-!-!-!

"Perhaps it's time that us Kage's joined in." The Raikage offered jovially, "We can't let the young Leafs have all the fun."

"These are _your _ninja who are attacking." The Mizukage sneered. He was a small man, with beady, watery blue eyes and a thin mustache. His face seemed to be set in a constant scowl. "In my village, just thinking about committing such treason would be punished with death."

The Raikage nodded his head, "I apologize." He said, standing up from his seat and looking over the battle. "I will take care of the problem, comrades."

"I'll help," Tsunade said as she also stood up. The body of a rouge Cloud ninja flew in her direction. She effortlessly lifted a hand and batted the body away.

"Thank you, Tsunade." The Raikage said with a friendly smile.

"I'm…sure you'll…understand…Ikazuchi…if I don't join…" The Tsuchikage wheezed.

The Raikage turned his friendly gaze on the old man, "Of course, Tsuchikage-sama, you go rest."

The broad shouldered man stepped up behind the Tsuchikage and began to wheel him away. "Farwell…" The Tsuchikage waved a frail hand as he departed.

The Raikage turned to Gaara, who was already standing. "And you too, Kazekage-sama?"

Gaara just nodded.

"Well you three look like you've got this under control." The Mizukage said, waving them off with a disgusted look about his face. "I've got better things to take care of." He began to walk away the same way the Tsuchikage had gone.

"Then it's just the three of us." The Raikage spoke. Neither of his Kage comrades answered him.

Tsunade hopped onto the table they had been sitting at and crouched low. "I'm sorry, Raikage, but I'm going to have to mess up this room a little bit." She tensed her legs and jumped, flying high in the air. Below her, the table splintered and broke from the force she exerted.

The Raikage chuckled and turned to Gaara, "It seems she was very eager to help her comrades."

Gaara didn't say anything. He had formed a meditative seal and was molding chakra. He quickly formed seals and slammed his hand into the ground. _"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"_

With a puff of smoke, a large bird appeared. Without a word the Kazekage jumped onto the birds back and took off.

The Raikage chuckled again and calmly walked into the battle.

!-!-!-!-!

Tsunade spun in mid air, brought her leg up in a vertical stance, and brought it down on the floor of the room in a devastating heel kick.

The floor splintered and cracked and formed a giant crater all around her. The floor shook, throwing both enemy and foe to the ground.

Everyone slowly pushed themselves off the ground. Many of the rouges stared in awe and a bit of fear. The Konoha and Suna ninja stared in triumph.

Naruto and Sakura landed next to their Hokage.

"It's about time you showed up, old lady." Naruto admonished the Hokage.

Next, Gaara flew in on his summoned bird, with Temari and Kankurou dropping in with him.

After that, the rest of the allied ninja slowly began to congregate around their leaders, until the group of Konoha and Sand ninja stood together, staring down the rouge Cloud ninjas.

Slowly, the Raikage pushed himself to the front of the group and addressed his own ninja. "You may have us out numbered, but we have you outclassed." He spoke softly, with a dangerous edge to his voice, "Trash like you can't stand up to these Konoha and Suna ninja. You call them scum? You're the ones betraying your own village. Surrender now!"

The Cloud ninja stared at the harsh warning of their leader. Then, at once, they all broke up and dashed for the exit.

Naruto made to dash after the traitors, "I'll get those bastards…" He was halted by the Raikage.

"Don't worry, young Leaf ninja, I'll send my best ANBU team and they'll be caught by morning. You've done enough now."

Naruto was about to push past the man, but he was pulled back by Tsunade.

The Raikage turned to face the group as a whole. "I thank you all, for what you have done. I am glad to see that many of you are uninjured and you suffered no casualties. The children have also gotten to safety, thanks to you. I apologize for the reckless actions of my own ninja, and I assure you, they will be punished! The important thing is that no one got hurt."

"OH MY GOD!" Everyone turned to see the broad shouldered man, the Tsuchikage's apprentice. "TSUCHIKAGE-SAMA HAS BEEN KILLED!"

!-!-!-!-!

There are a few of my own created techniques in this chapter.

Konoha Tsunami - A taijutsu technique.

Raiton: Doudou Raikou - Lightning style: Grand Lightning - standard lightning technique.


	21. Tension!

Thanks to everyone who reveiwed, or added this story to thier favorites, alerts, or c2s.

**!-!-!-!-!**

"I've go to know, why did you do it?"

"…"

"I know _he _says to never question your judgment, but was that really necessary?"

"…"

"Not that I care about the old man. It's just that I know you aren't the type to commit unnecessary actions."

"…"

"…"

"…Heaven and Earth…must meet."

!-!-!-!-!

"Hey! Wake up!"

"…"

"Come on, wake up, dammit!"

"…Ugh…"

Naruto got fed up and lifted up his leg, delivering a swift kick to the Hokage's rear.

The blond woman groaned again and rolled over. "Dammit kid, kick me one more time and I'm tearing your ass."

Naruto rebelliously nudged the woman with his foot. "You're the one who told me I had to wake up early to be your body guard!" He accused hotly. "If I have to wake up, then you should stop being such a lazy bastard!"

Tsunade sighed into her pillow. "Who the hell let you into my room anyways?"

"Shizune-chan." Naruto proclaimed with a slight bit of pride and a cross of his arms.

With another sigh, Tsunade turned to Naruto and glared at him. "I'll be out in a little bit."

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

Tsunade let out a third sigh, "All right, I'll be out in _five minutes_, now get the hell out of here!" She said, angrily waving him off.

Satisfied, Naruto walked out of the Hokage's room.

"Damn kids," Tsunade mumbled to herself as she sat up in bed, "Think they can order me around. I'm the damn Hokage. No respect."

!-!-!-!-!

Ten minutes later, Naruto and Tsunade walked the streets of Hidden Cloud village, making their way to the elegant form of the Raikage's tower. The cloudy skies were a light gray of the early morning.

"So, what the hell are we doing up so early again?" Naruto asked.

"_I'm _going to a meeting with the other kages. _You're _my protection." Tsunade answered off handedly.

"And why am _I _you're protection?" Naruto asked in annoyance, "Even though I'm an awesome ninja, wouldn't you rather have someone else who likes getting up early in the morning like Kakashi-sensei…or Shikamaru?"

Tsunade shrugged, "Kakashi and the other Jounins are investigating the murder of the Tsuchikage for me, and out of all the Chuunin, I'd rather have you watching my back."

The compliment was lost to Naruto, "But I don't want to watch over you this early in the morning!" He whined, "And why does Kakashi-sensei have to do an investigation, shouldn't that be the Raikage's problem?"

"For all we know, the Raikage could have been the one who ordered the assassination." Tsunade explained. She paused and looked over at the curious blond, "But don't go mouthing off about that with your big mouth. If the Raikage finds out we don't trust him, it will be bad."

"Pssh, like I care." Naruto waved off her warning. "This bodyguard job better not be boring."

!-!-!-!-!

Kakashi crouched low to the ground, carefully observing a dried pool of blood on the ground. He leaned his head in closer, his nose twitched as he smelled the area.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

He moved onto the carpet surrounding the blood, examining it for any kind of tracks.

Nothing.

He slowly moved towards the Tsuchikage's wheelchair. He-

"Find anything Kakashi!"

Kakashi fell face first into the ground. The spiky haired jounin groaned and pushed himself off the ground. "Gai, don't sneak up on me like that."

"But Kakashi, you must always be ever vigilant and youthful!" Gai exclaimed.

"Well, in case you forgot, we're supposed to be _secretly _investigating the murder of the Tsuchikage." Kakashi reminded his comrade with a narrowed eye.

"Ah, right." Gai nodded. He cleared his throat and continued on in a deeper, more serious tone. "Did you find anything?"

Kakashi shook his head and walked over to the window of the room. "Whoever did this must have been an elite. Based on the performance of those rogue ninja we fought last night, I don't think any of them could have been capable of it."

"So those rogues weren't involved?" Gai questioned, stepping up behind his comrade and peering out the window over Kakashi's shoulder.

"I highly doubt it," Kakashi answered, "They were largely disorganized and generally unskilled. The person who murdered the Tsuchikage entered the room, killed a high ranking ninja, and left without anyone noticing. The person who would have the most motive to kill the current Tsuchikage and be able to get away with it is his apprentice, now the Sandiame Tsuchikage, but he was outside the room the entire time, plus he was very close to the Tsuchikage."

The two jounin lapsed into silence, each of them staring out into the village. Quiet.

Gai placed his hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "It's hard, isn't it? Being back here."

Kakashi shrugged the mans hand off. "We all have bad memories of this place. We just have to keep in mind that we're here as allies now, and not enemies."

"We all have bad memories of this place," Gai repeated with a confirming nod, "But you lost something very, very precious to you."

"…Did you say something?" Kakashi muttered turning back to look at the green-clad jounin, "Whatever. Lets go check in with Kurenai and Asuma and see if they've found anything."

Kakashi opened the window and hopped off onto a nearby rooftop.

Gai stood still for a minute, before jumping after his 'rival' booming. "YES KAKASHI, THAT WAS VERY COOL!"

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto and Tsunade had successfully made it to the Raikage's tower.

Tsunade had told Naruto to wait outside the Raikage's office while she conducted her meeting with the other Kages.

And so Naruto waited.

And he waited.

For nearly an hour. Which, in Naruto time, was liken unto an eternity of boredom.

He stood against a wall, rapping his knuckles impatiently on a glass window. The receptionist at a nearby desk glared at him. He wasn't paying attention. He watched the people down below in the streets pass in an attempt to amuse himself.

It wasn't working. Not until he saw a few familiar faces in the crowd.

His face split into a smile. He opened the window and prepared to jump out. Before fully making the plunge, he turned to the receptionist.

"Uh, if that old lady asks where I am, just tell her I'm…" He paused and tried to remember the lessons on body guarding missions in the academy, "I'm…securing the…the…perimeter. Yeah, that's it. Tell her that."

"We _do_ have a door." The receptionist informed him crossly.

"Pssh, like a great ninja like me has time for doors." Naruto boasted. He tensed his legs and jumped out the window.

"Tch. Konoha ninja…" The receptionist scoffed angrily.

!-!-!-!-!

"Um…Konohamaru-chan, should we really be out here?" Moegi asked the boy quietly as they walked through the streets of Hidden Cloud without an escort.

"Why not?" Konohamru retorted, "All of those older ninja were to lazy to take us out, so we have to go on our own, it's not our fault."

"But Hokage-sama told us that we weren't supposed to leave alone, no matter what." Udon droningly countered.

Konohamaru turned back to look at his two companions. "What's the worst that could happ-OOF!" He stopped as he collided with something very hard. He stumbled backwards, and looked up to see what he hit. Unfortunately, he was greeted with the sight of a total mountain of a man. Nearly seven feet tall and covered in hard bulky muscle.

The young genin's eyes widened in fear.

The man tilted his dark haired head down, his Hidden Rock forehead protector flashing in the brief sunlight. "What do you Konoha punks think you're doing." He asked in deep, throaty voice.

Konohamaru just whimpered, scooting back away from the man and his glare.

The man took a mighty step forward. "You trying to pick fight with me? Huh?"

"No, sir, he didn't mean anything by it." Moegi squeaked out in defense for the petrified boy.

"I think he did mean something by it," The Rock ninja said, taking another step forward. "You done took out our Tsuchikage, now you Konoha brats are trying to pick a fight with me!"

"Konoha didn't kill the Tsuchikage!" Konohamaru unexpectedly blurted out.

The mans glare deepened. "Hey, you guys, get over here, we've got some trouble makers." An assorted group of ninja flanked the large man. Four in all, two from Hidden Rock and the other two from Cloud and Mist respectively. Unlike the big man, most of the other ninja were obviously younger genin. "These Konoha kids is causin' trouble. Saying that they're glad the Tsuchikage's dead. Says that it was probably the Hidden Mist or Could that did it!"

"What!" Exclaimed one ninja.

"How dare they." Seethed another.

The other two let out similar exclamations of disbelief.

"Maybe we outgta show 'em what for?" The big man offered, punching his fist into his palm.

"Yeah, we should." The mist ninja agreed, unsheathing two long, curved daggers.

Konohamaru whimpered some more.

The mist ninja was the first one to attack. He lunged at the younger kids with his daggers held high and a feral glint in his eyes.

He didn't even get close.

"_KONOHA SENPUU!"_

A blurry whirl of green appeared between the Mist ninja and Konohamaru and kicked the aggressor out of the air and sent him flying into a building front.

Rock Lee landed in a crouch and stood up, standing in his tradition pose with one arm held behind his back. "Please, youthful allies, save the fighting for the Exam."

"Those who lash out and attack others in groups are usually the weak ones." Neji voiced as he walked up next to Lee.

Shikamaru sighed as he stepped out from behind the tall Hyuuga. "In other words, stop all this crap because it's really troublesome."

Konohamaru looked up as Naruto came to stand next him. "You're afraid of these guys?" The blond asked indignantly, "Maybe I should've trained you harder."

"You trained these punks?" The large Rock ninja asked incredulously, "No wonder they're so weak, they had a fruit for a teacher." The large man began guffawing, followed by his companions. All except the Mist ninja, who was still trying to pull himself out of the rubble.

Naruto marched forward angrily, "HELL YEAH I TRAINED THEM!" He shouted, "AND YOU BETTER SHUT THE HELL UP OR YOU'LL GET YOU ASS HANDED TO YOU BY KONOHA'S TOP FOUR NINJA!" He said this while gesturing to his three comrades. Lee seemed to swell with pride while Neji remained indifferent and Shikamaru looked a little annoyed at something.

The large ninja looked back to his friends, chuckled a little, then quickly struck out with a left jab to Naruto's head.

The blond flew back with a look of surprise on his face…

Until he poped into a puff of smoke and turned into a log.

"What the-!" The Rock ninja was cut off as he unexpectedly found his face driven into the ground by means of Naruto's heel to the back of his head.

Naruto landed in a squat next to the big mans downed body. He glanced up at the rest of the men with amused eyes.

Another rock ninja, this one obviously younger and smaller than the other, swung at Naruto with his fists covered in heavy steel gauntlets.

Naruto smirked and jumped backwards, just in time as an inky dark shadow darted under him and attached itself to the Rock ninjas shadow.

The second Rock nin gasped as he found himself immobile.

Neji rushed forward with a quick, decisive palm thrust. The Rock ninja flew back and crashed into a bar down the street.

Shikamaru dispelled his shadow.

Lee charge forward. He jumped, leapfrogged off Neji's shoulders, and landed in a handstand on the shoulders of the Cloud ninja. The Cloud ninja only had half a second to register his shock before Lee used his bodies momentum to swing himself forward, plant his feet on the ground, and swing the Cloud ninja into the last standing Rock ninja.

"Yahoo!" Naruto shouted, "We kick ass!"

Neji shook his head, "Although that was not the best course of action, it was necessary."

"Yeah?" Shikamaru asked sarcastically, "Well it didn't work very well." He pointed out the bodies of their opponents as they pushed themselves back up.

"Perhaps now we should try for a more peaceful negotiation?" Neji offered. He turned to Naruto, but Naruto wasn't there anymore. He was charging the Mist ninja that had managed to finally pull himself from the rubble.

He opened his mouth for a warcry, but was halted by an explosion of leaves between him and his target. He was nearly jerked off his feet as someone grabbed his collar.

Naruto was pulled to a stop and looked up into Kakashi's deadpan, one eyed gaze. The Jounin simply said, "The Hokage isn't going to be happy about this."


	22. Anger!

Sorry this chapter took longer than usual. I had a minor case of writers block, and I was also working on a new, original project. This chapter was going to be longer, but after taking so long to get over my block, I decided to save up the other stuff for next chapter, which will hopefully be here on time next week.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed or added this story to their alerts, favorites or c2's.

* * *

Naruto, Neji, Lee and Shikamaru sat quietly in a room of their hotel. Each sat still in a chair positioned in the center room, behind them Kakashi stood and kept watch.

Outside the door of the room came a sound. The clip-cloping of high heeled shoes on a wooden floor. It was far down the hall and away from their room, but it was growing closer.

Naruto remained impassive as the sound grew, sitting with his arms crossed. Lee twitched at each foot fall that could be heard, apprehensively rubbing his bandaged knuckles.

The sound grew louder and faster.

Shikamaru let out a deep sigh and placed his face into his hands.

The sound became much closer.

Neji leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest albeit in a less rebellious way than Naruto.

The sound was positively bearing down on the room now.

Kakashi took a few steps back from the four boys.

The sound grew louder, louder, louder…and then stopped right outside the door.

Naruto turned his head to glare at the door, as if daring it to open.

And open it did. With a thunderous crack, the door was kicked off its place in the wall and flew through the room. It would have decapitated Shikamaru had his face not been buried in his palms.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Tsunade raged as she stormed into the room.

No one answered her question. Most of them were too afraid to, although they would never admit it. Tsunade glared at everyone of them equally, waiting for her answer. It was Neji who decided to be brave.

"We were protecting genin from-"

"Protecting genins is one thing!" Tsunade interrupted, "Picking a fight with four _other _genin from other villages is another!"

Neji closed his mouth.

"I told each and EVERY ONE OF YOU!" Tsunade shouted, "NO FIGTHING! Everyone already thinks we killed the Tsuchikage, and you dumb asses are going to go around starting fights?"

"Calm down, old lady." Naruto muttered deeply, "It's not-"

Naruto was interrupted too, but this time by Tsunade's high heeled shoe sending him flying across the room and into a wall.

"Hokage, Hokage, Hokage!" Tsunade practically snarled. "That's all you ever talk about, but with the way you act if you ever became Hokage you would destroy Konoha with your reckless behavior."

Naruto glared at the woman as he got off the ground. "Don't you ever-"

"Grow up, kid!" Tsunade spat, "Being Hokage doesn't mean picking fights with those weaker than you!"

"IT MEANS PROTECTING THOSE WHO ARE PRECIOUS TO YOU!" Naruto screamed, causing Tsunade to take a step back. "I don't give a damn what you think being Hokage means because I already know! Being Hokage means protecting those who are too weak to protect themselves, and protecting those who are precious to you! Those bastards picked on Konohamaru because they knew he was weaker than them, and I'll never forgive them for that!"

With that said, Naruto marched forward past Tsunade and left the room without looking back.

Tsunade's fists clenched at her side. "Damn kid…" She grumbled. She turned to the other three boys in the room, all of which had varying levels of surprise spread across their faces. "All four of you will be on cleaning duty once we get back to Konoha, and as of now are barred from any missions until I say so. Understood?"

All three of them nodded.

"Good." Tsunade said turning her back to them and walking out the room. Kakashi slowly followed her out.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto marched angrily through the halls of the hotel.

He walked past Konohamaru and his gang as they huddled up against the wall, watching him pass with a bit of fear.

Naruto stopped.

"Come on, you three." He called to them without turning.

The three genin hastily followed.

The four of them walked out of the hotel and into the streets of Hidden Cloud. It was a while before anyone had the guts to speak.

"Wh-where are we going…Boss?" Konohamaru asked warily.

"To train." Naruto answered simply.

"Why?" Konohamaru asked, "I thought you weren't going to train us anymore."

"You're too weak." Was Naruto's bland answer.

They continued walking through the streets.

"The exams start tomorrow." Moegi spoke up.

"Then we'll train till then."

!-!-!-!-!

"How bad is it?" Kakashi asked as he followed Tsunade up to her room.

"The Raikage is mad, but he realizes it's just a bunch of teenage stuff." Tsunade explained disinterestedly, "The new Tsuchikage is suspicious of everyone, and this incident definitely didn't help. And the Mizukage…the Mizukage is always looking for an excuse to go to war."

"So it's serious?" Kakashi questioned, "Is the peace agreement really going to be hampered by this?"

Tsunade sighed, "I think we both knew this was doomed from the beginning, but the Tsuchikage's death has made everyone very sensitive and Naruto's little fight didn't help things." Tsunade stopped in front of her door, "Now, if you'll excuse me…"

"Of course," Kakashi said with a small bow.

!-!-!-!-!

Hours later, Naruto nudged the door of the hotel open with his foot. It was dark outside, though the moon and the stars were covered up by cloudy the skies.

The lobby in the hotel was empty and mostly dark. Naruto stepped slowly so he didn't disturb his passengers. Konohamaru hung limply off Naruto's shoulders, barely awake. Thrown over his left shoulder, Naruto carried Udon, and under his right arm was Moegi.

Silently, Naruto trekked through the lobby and up the stairs and to the room he knew Konohamaru shared with the rest of his team. Once he was at the door, he pulled his foot back and loudly kicked it once. The lights in the room went on and the door opened revealing a tired looking Ebisu.

"…Oh…Naruto…And Konohamaru…I wondered where you guys went." The bespectacled man said tiredly.

"Pssh, Damn Closet Pervert." Naruto grumbled, pushing past the man, "Can't you even keep track of your own team?"

Ebisu shrugged, "Well…Sakura told me they were with you, so I figured you would bring them back eventually."

Naruto shook his head, "Damn, I would hate to have you as a sensei." He walked over to the kid's beds and laid each of them down gently.

"Looks like you worked them hard." Ebisu commented.

"Yeah." Naruto said with a nod. He reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out three soldier pills. "Just give them these in the morning and they'll be good to take the exams."

Ebisu nodded and Naruto made his way to the door. "You know," Ebisu called to him, "If you were a jounin, I would hand them over to you. They respect you a lot more than they do me."

Naruto stopped and turned to look at the man over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. "That's because you're a shitty teacher." With that said, Naruto steeped out of the room and closed the door behind him.

With a small chuckle, Ebisu turned to his three students. He stared at them for a moment, before letting out a small sigh. In a slightly dejected mood, the teacher turned off the lights, walked over to his bed, made sure his copy of Icha Icha Paradise was safely tucked under his pillow, and went back to sleep.

Naruto trudged up the stairs, making his way to his room. But, the closer and closer he got, the slower he became. He knew Sakura would be waiting for him, and after training the kids all day, he wasn't in the mood to be pounded.

Unfortunately, a pounding seemed to be his destiny, as he rounded the last corner and prepared to take the last set of stairs that would lead him to his room's floor, he found Sakura waiting for him at the top of the stairs.

He stopped and let out a sigh.

"If you're planning on beating me up and calling me an idiot, you should know that I already got all that from the old lady." Naruto said exasperatedly.

"Then maybe you deserve two beatings." Sakura said, crossing her arms and staring down at him.

Naruto placed his foot on the first step. "I don't see why everyone is so pissed at me. All I did was protect Konohamaru from those bastards."

"Protecting Konohamaru doesn't give you a reason to go looking for fights." Sakura countered.

"Well it's not my fault." Naruto defended himself, taking another step up, "Those guys pissed me off."

Sakura shook her head, "You're such an idiot. We're in a foreign country, this isn't the type of place to start fights."

Naruto scaled another step. "I don't give a damn where we are, I'll kick the ass of anyone who messes with my friends."

Sakura had nothing to say to that. Her foot slowly slipped off the step she was on and she took a step down.

Naruto took another step up, "Plus, it's not like I was the only one there. Did you beat up Lee and the others?"

Sakura took a step down, "Yes, actually."

Naruto smirked and took a step up, "I wish I was here for that."

"I wish you had been here too." Sakura said, narrowing her eyes in a glare, "That way I would've been able to beat all four of you at the same time without having to wait up for you."

Naruto chuckled and hopped up two steps, "I'm the man who's going to become Hokage, I can't have you beating me up forever, you know."

Sakura's glare deepened and Naruto smiled wider. The blond hopped up two more stairs and stood shoulder to shoulder with his comrade.

Sakura continued staring forward as Naruto stood next to her, contemplating whether or not to strike him down right there.

"Sorry." Naruto said, turning to her. She turned up to him and gave him a questioning look, "Sorry for pissing you off and making you wait up late to beat me."

Sakura turned forward again and sighed. "Just go to bed, Naruto."

With a broad smile, Naruto jumped up the last few steps and ran to his room before Sakura could change her mind.

Sakura shook her head and followed after him, a small smile on her face.


	23. Endurance!

Don't blame me, blame school. ...And mountains. Seriously.

As always, thanks to those who reviewed, or added this story to their alerts, favorites, or c2s. I can't promise you that the next chapter will be up faster, but I'll try my damned hardest.

* * *

Tsunade groggily made her way to the door of her room with a steaming mug of tea in her hand. It was another day of meetings for her and Shizune had refused to let her have some sake. Kids these days.

So, in a sour mood Tsunade exited her room and turned down the hallway, nearly missing the orange clad ninja waiting for her. She stopped and turned a curious eye to Naruto who leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes cast down.

"What're you doing, kid?" The Hokage grumbled angrily.

Naruto finally looked up at her, "I'm your bodyguard, right?" Tsunade scoffed and kept walking. Naruto followed her. "What kind of man would I be if I abandoned my job?"

"It's too late for that, dumbass." Tsunade griped, taking a sip of her tea as she walked.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto sighed, "But…last night Sakura-chan was giving me some lecture about responsibility and stuff like that, I wasn't really paying attention, but Sakura-chan is usually pretty smart, so I figure I should listen to her more often."

Tsunade looked back at him as he followed her, "…One more chance," She said, "You get one more chance and if you screw it up, I'll kill you myself."

Naruto nodded and beamed at her, not at all perturbed by her threat. Tsunade just sighed and went back to her tea. "You know," She began in between sips, "You're not going to be able to watch the exams now."

Naruto shrugged, "Why should I care? I already know who's going to dominate."

!-!-!-!-!

On top of a high mountain peak adjacent to the Hidden Cloud Village stood a large group of huddled genin. The cold winds whipped at their bodies, causing them to shiver and wish they had brought heavier clothing. Only those native to their area seemed unaffected.

Amongst the group stood Konohamaru and his friends. They had been roused from their beds early that morning and marched to the edge of Hidden Cloud village. From there, they piled into a lift in groups and rode it up to one of the tallest mountains in the range.

In front of them stood an imposing Cloud jounin. He watched them all carefully, impervious to the cold winds. "Welcome," The man spoke, "To the first exam of the Chuunin exam! Now, you all know why you're here, so let's get straight to business. Your goal is to get down this mountain before the end of the day. There are about fifty teams here, so the first twenty-five teams to reach the bottom will pass, while the rest will fail."

Many eyes went wide in disbelief at that.

"Now," The proctor continued, "You have all been handed a scroll. This scroll is your safety net. If you find that you can't continue on, use the scroll and you will be rescued by an older Ninja. Don't be a fool and try pushing yourself past your limits. If you fall off the side of the mountain, you will die."

Konohamaru stared nervously at his teammates, then glanced around at the other genin surrounding him.

The Cloud Jounin smirked at the younger ninja. "…BEGIN!"

!-!-!-!-!

Tsunade opened the doors to the Meeting Room and walked in. She was the last one to arrive. In the center of the room there was a round table with five high chairs. Each chair was occupied by the leader of one of the hidden villages, except hers.

"You're late, Hokage-sama." The Mizukage addressed her as she walked in.

"I apologize." Tsunade said with a small bow before taking her seat, "Let's start the meeting. I would first like to apologize again for the actions of my ninja the other day. They have all been barred from missions as of now."

"Little too late, don't you think?" The Mizukage sneered, "Were it up to me, they would be killed for their insolence."

"Then let us be thankful that it is not up to you." The Raikage interjected. "What those Konoha ninja did yesterday was juvenile, but they do not deserve to be killed. Hokage-sama has dealt with it accordingly, and you should be happy."

"Happy?" The Mizukage scoffed, "One of my best genin was kicked through a wall. There's nothing to be happy about."

"By a Chuunin that was trying to protect one of _my _genin." Tsunade added.

"If your genin are too weak to protect themselves, then you shouldn't have come." The Mizukage countered.

Tsunade could feel her anger boil up insider her, but she did her best to keep it hidden. She knew that if she wanted to accomplish anything in this meeting she would have to stay civil.

"Please, comrades, let's stop fighting, this is a meeting of peace. We have other things to discuss." The Raikage pleaded.

"Peace?" The Mizukage questioned, as if such a word didn't exist, "Am I the only one who realizes that we're _ninja_? We are warriors. Death is our trade, not peace."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed in a glare, "Just because we are ninja doesn't mean we can't have peace."

"It's a known fact, dear Tsunade," The Mizukage spoke coolly, "That ninja thrive in war."

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto boredly stared out the window of the Raikage's reception hall, just as he had done the day before. The people passed below him, all of them average. Nothing out of the ordinary to keep him occupied from the drudges of guard duty. He picked a woman walking through the street and followed her to keep himself interested. He watched her as she waved at a passing man, as she stopped into a store to buy some things, as she brushed past a man wearing a dark coat and straw hat.

Wait…

Naruto's entire body tensed. His eyes widened and his breath hitched in his throat. He searched through the crowds of the street, trying to spot the black cloaked man again, he was mentally preparing himself to jump out the window when the black cloaked man reappeared, pushing a cart of vegetables.

Naruto let out his held breath.

"What the hell is your problem?"

Naruto turned away from the window to stare back a Kankurou, who was also on guard duty. "Nothing," He answered, "Just thought I saw something."

"Whatever," Kankurou shrugged, and turned back to reading a book he had been smart enough to bring.

Naruto turned back to the window, having no trouble spotting the man in the black cloak, still pushing his cart through the crowd. The blonde raised a curious eyebrow.

When he had first spotted the man out of the corner of his eye…he hadn't seen a cart of vegetables.

!-!-!-!-!

Konohamaru hung off the side of the mountain. It had been decided by his team that if they hoped to reach the bottom of the mountain, that they would have to ration their chakra use. As such, instead of sticking their feet to the side of the mountain, they crawled down at a slow pace, using their kunai to stab into the mountain.

For hours they had been climbing this way, and while the top of the mountain was far away, the bottom was no where in sight.

"This is impossible, Konohamaru-chan." Moegi whined, "Even a jounin couldn't climb down this mountain in one day, how do they expect us to do it?"

"I don't know." Konohamaru answered truthfully. He jerked his kunai out of the mountain, carefully lowered himself, and stabbed it back in. "But we aren't going to give up, no matter what. That's what we promised, remember?"

Moegi didn't answer, but she stopped complaining.

They continued on with their slow descent unimpeded. That is until a rock fell and hit Konohamaru in the head. "Dammit!" He cursed, fighting down the reflex to rub his sore head so that he could keep both his hands focused on climbing down. Then another rock hit him in the head. "DAMMIT!" He cursed again looking up.

Something else was falling from higher up the mountain. It was large, and black, and was…screaming.

"What the hell…?" Konohamaru breathed. The body fell past him and his team, screaming the whole way. Shortly after that, two more bodies followed after.

"What do you think happened to them?" Udon questioned in his usual nasally tone.

"Um…maybe we should ask them?" Moegi said uneasily, pointing upwards as three ninja ran down the mountain towards them.

"Shit!" Konohamaru cursed.

"What do we do?" Moegi asked.

"There's no where to hide on the side of a mountain." Konohamaru pointed out, "We'll have to fight." He pushed his legs against the mountain and circulated chakra through them, allowing him to 'stand up' on the side of the mountain. His comrades copied his actions.

As the ninja drew closer, one of them pulled out two swords. As Konohamaru got a better look at the ninja, he realized it was aMist ninja from before, the one who had been kicked away by Rock Lee.

"…Or maybe we should run?" Konohamaru offered shakily. His two companions nodded in agreement and the three of them turned and ran down the mountain.

!-!-!-!-!

The meeting had been running on for hours and still nothing was accomplished. So far, it was mostly just Tsunade and the Mizukage arguing back and forth about whether or not a peace treaty was even needed.

The Hokage was definitely on her last stretch of patience.

"Tsuchikage-same, Kazekage-sama," The Raikage began peacefully, "You have both been very quiet today, isn't there something you would like to add?"

The new Tsuchikage looked up at the Raikage with stone hard eyes, "…My master…my father…was killed just two days ago, I'm not interested in being comrades with any of you."

"Surely, you can't blame us for what happened." The Raikage said in a friendly tone.

"Those rogue ninja of yours are the prime suspects. Of course I blame you." The Tsuchikage deadpanned.

"That old man was past his prime anyways." Mizukage interjected, "He should have been replaced long ago. The whole Heir system you rock ninjas have set up is ridiculous."

"I guess assassinating your way to the top would be better?" The Tsuchikage sneered.

The Mizukage smirked, "At least that way the strongest rule."

The Tsuchikage glared at the man.

"Please, gentlemen, let's get back on topic." The Raikage cut through the tense silence. "Hokage-sama, please explain why you think this peace treaty would be a good idea."

"My reasons are simple," Tsunade began, "There are greater things we should be worrying about than each other."

"Like what?" The Mizukage asked mockingly, "Orochimaru? He's your problem, he hasn't shown an interest in anyone else."

"He killed the yondiame Kazekage." Tsunade countered.

That seemed to shut the Mizukage up, if only for a minute. "Well then, let the Sand avenge their loss, I still see no need why he concerns me."

"Then…" Tsunade began slowly, "…there is a greater threat, one that concerns us all."

The Mizukage arched a disbelieving eyebrow. "And that is…?"

Tsunade hesitated, not sure how to deliver the information. Gaara saved her the trouble.

"Akatsuki." He spoke monotonously.

!-!-!-!-!

"Akatsuki, eh?" Asuma questioned, as he spun one of his knives around his finger, "You think those guys are involved in this?"

"It's possible," Kakashi answered, "We can't rule out anything yet. But there really hasn't been anything to lead us to believe that Akatsuki or Orochimaru has been here."

"What could the Akatsuki gain from killing the Tsuchikage?" Kurenai asked.

"Nothing that I know of," Kakashi said with a shrug, "But no one is really sure of thier intentions."

The three Jounin stood on top of a building, an impromptu meeting place to discuss their findings in the search for the Nidaime Tsuchikage's death.

"Where's Gai?" Asuma muttered around his cigarette.

"Still out following leads with the 'fervor of youth.'"

Asuma shook his head, "Geez, that guy. When's he going to realize that he hasn't been 'youthful' in quite a few years."

"MY EARS ARE STILL AS YOUTHFUL AS EVER, ASUMA!" Gai boomed as he appeared behind Asuma suddenly, sending the smoking jounin falling to the ground. "AND I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT MY YOUTHFUL PERSISTENCE HAS LEAD ME TO OUR QUARRY'S HIDING SPOT!"

"Really?" Kakashi questioned with a raise of his only visible eyebrow.

"Indeed!" Gai continued, "Follow me, comrades!" With that he bounded off the roof, and the other three jounin were left with no other choice but to follow him.

!-!-!-!-!

Konohamaru and his team quietly sat in a dark cave they had found on the side of the mountain. It had taken them a while, but eventually they had managed to get away from the Mist ninja and find a suitable hiding place. Unfortunately, the chase had tired them out, and neither of them was ready to begin climbing down the mountain again.

"This is impossible!" Moegi whined, not for the first time, "It's almost night time, there's now way we're going to make it!"

"We're not giving up!" Konohamaru said forcefully.

"But it's late already, the first twenty-five teams have probably already made it." Moegi continued.

Konohamaru plopped down on the rocky interior of the cave, "Geez, this sucks. Why the hell did they have to give us a race as our first exam?"

Moegi nodded in angry agreement, "Yeah, what kind of test is seeing how fast we can climb down a mountain?"

Everything was quiet in the dark little cave. Then: "It's an endurance test."

Konohamaru jumped, then settled down when he realized it was Udon who had spoken. He had forgotten about the bespectacled boy. "A what?"

"Endurance test." Udon repeated. "It isn't a test to see who can get down the mountain faster, but a test of who is willing to try the hardest. …At least that's what I think."

Konohamaru rubbed his hairless chin, "…You might be right." He said, a smile growing on his face. "It makes sense, Naruto is always telling us how trying hard is one of the most important parts of being a ninja."

"Yeah!" Moegi excitedly cheered, "That's why they gave us these scrolls, so all the losers could quit and all the strong ninja pass at the end of the day!"

All three genin excitedly jumped up and hugged each other in the middle of the cave.

"Thanks for the information," A voice intruded on their happy moment. They all turned to see the Mist team standing at the mouth of the cave. The leader of the team drew his swords. "But I don't think you _losers_ are going to last 'till the end of the day."


	24. Resolutions!

I'm out of excuses, all I can offer now is apologies. I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, as much as I would like to, I can't guarantee that these slow updates will stop anytime soon.

As always, I would like to thank those of you who reviewed, or added this story to your alerts or favorites. For those of you paying attention (all zero of you) this story made its five month birthday a while back, and it's sixth is coming up. I really can't tell you how much your support has helped the story come this far. Thanks to all of you!

* * *

"Akatsuki!,?" The Mizukage's disbelieving exclamation reverberated around the otherwise quiet meeting room. "What the hell is Akatsuki?"

"A group of S-ranked criminals," Gaara spoke softly, "No one knows their intentions, and that's what makes them dangerous. I have witnessed their power first hand."

"So a bunch of criminals have gathered together, you truly think that's worth starting an alliance over?" The Mizukage stated, waving off Gaara's tale.

"They are after one of the most powerful forces on this earth: the bijuu." Gaara continued, unperturbed by the Mizukage's attitude. "I'm sure you've heard of the attack I suffered over a month ago. That was Akatsuki, they forcefully withdrew the bijuu placed in me at birth. It would have killed me had it not been for the sacrifice of Chiyo-sama."

The Mizukage looked ready to make another statement, but was cut off by the Raikage. "Do you know the members of this group?" He asked urgently.

Gaara looked over to Tsunade and nodded to her. "Yes," The Hokage answered, "We know some of them. One is Uchiha Itachi of the Leaf Village, the genius of the Uchiha clan and also it's destroyer. Another is Deidara of the Rock." The Tsuchikage's face morphed into a visage of shock. "Also, Denkou Raihanma," The Raikage leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh. Tsunade turned to the Mizukage and gave him a pointed glare, "and also, Hoshigaki Kisame." The Mizukage stared back at Tsunade impassively.

The Raikage rubbed his temple in frustration, "Are there any others?"

Tsunade nodded, "Yes, although we don't know much about him, his name is Tobi. There are also others who we haven't been able to identify yet."

"This is…very pressing news, Tsunade-sama…" The Raikage muttered.

"Yes, I didn't know how to reveal it. A few of my ninja have been working on tracking them, we managed to take out one of them, but it seems he's already been replaced."

"Y-You have no proof!" The Mizukage stuttered.

"The Hokage and Kazekage's word is enough." The Raikage said with a silencing edge to his voice, "I know for a fact that my brother would have no second thoughts about joining an organization like Tsunade-sama described."

"I do believe it was you father who banished him for trying to kill you, wasn't it?" The Mizukage sneered.

"And I do believe it was you who banished Kisame because you feared his power, wasn't it?" The Raikage retorted.

The Mizukage was effectively silenced.

"Now," The Raikage continued, "A grouping of powerful S-Class criminals is bad enough, but if they are dealing with the bijuu, then we have no choice but to sign this treaty. Now let's vote, all for a treaty."

Tsunade and Gaara's hands went up immediately.

After a few seconds, the Tsuchikage slowly raised his hand.

The Raikage confidently raised his hand.

And then, finally, ever so indignantly, the Mizukage raised his hand.

!-!-!-!-!

Konohamaru and his two friends stared at the tall Mist ninja, their eyes wide with fear.

With a sadistic smirk, the ninja drew one of his swords and blurred forward.

Moegi shrieked. Konohamaru pushed her out of the way just in time as the sword cut through the air and stabed deep into the ground.

Surprisingly, Udon jumped forward and tackled the ninja around the waist, effectively dislodging him from his sword and sending him to the ground.

The mist ninja recovered quickly and delivered a quick punch to Udon's gut. As the bespectacled boy keeled over, the Mist ninja kicked and sent him flying into a cave wall. Then, the mist ninja quickly pushed himself off the ground and pulled out his other sword.

Konohamaru and Moegi shakily watched the ninja as he took a few steps forward and pulled his other sword out of the ground. "Come on," He whispered as he sunk into a fighting position, "You've at least got to make this interesting."

Konohamaru stared the swordsman down, and slowly his shaking stopped. He reached for a kunai. "I'm not going to die here." Konohamaru hissed, "No way I'll be killed by a…a PUNK like you!"

The Mist ninja chuckled deeply, "Then come!"

Konohamaru charged, jumped, and slashed down on the stationary swordsman, "RAUGH!"

The Mist ninja raised one of his swords and blocked the strike, he swung his second sword, but was blocked as Konohamaru placed his foot on the swordsman's wrist. Then, Konohamaru rose his other foot up, placed it on the swordsman's chest, and pushed off, back flipping away just in time as a hail of shuriken came from Moegi.

The swordsman gasped and raised his swords to block, but found himself held from behind by Udon. The shurikens struck the swordsman violently, although not in any vital areas. "AHHHH!" The swordsman swung backwards with his elbow and knocked Udon back into a wall.

Moegi rushed forward with a high kick straight to the swordsman's balls.

The swordsman let out a injured gasp, dropped his swords and fell to his knees.

With unnatural strength, Moegi grabbed the Mist Ninja by his shirt and flung him across the cave towards the entrance.

"AND NOW, KONOHA'S SECRET TAIJUTSU MOVE!" Konohamaru bellowed as he rushed the recovering swordsman with a one handed seal, "1OOO YEARS OF PAIN!,!,!,!,!" He stabbed forward with his fingers, right into the swordsman's exposed rear.

"OOHHHHHWWWAAAAHHH!" The swordsman was sent flying forward from Konohamaru's attack. He flew out of the cave and fell off the edge of the mountain, screaming the whole way.

Konohamaru stood in the same position, breathing heavily. His teammates came up to stand behind him.

There was a noise outside the mouth of the cave.

All three Genin tensed up.

A tall figure came into view, sporting a Hidden Cloud forehead protector and a flak jacket. "Congratulations you three." He said with a small wave, "Time is up, and you are still on the mountain. You pass the first exam."

!-!-!-!-!

A small warehouse sat on the edge of Hidden Cloud village. It was a brown, run down building with boarded up windows, not having been used since the Hidden Cloud's last major war. It was also the apparent hideout of the rogue ninja who attacked the pre-exam dance. All was quiet and still, as snow softly fell from the sky.

There was a quick movement, and the body of Kakashi blurred forward and stood with his back against the wall, standing on one side of the large double door entrance to the warehouse. Another quick movement and Gai appeared on the other side of the door in the same position as Kakashi with his back against the wall.

They looked at each other and shared a quick nod.

A rustle from above caused the two jounin to look up as Asuma dropped down from the top of the warehouse and landed in front of the door silently. Kurenai also appeared over the top edge of the warehouse, but unlike Asuma she quietly snuck down the front side of the building with chakra-sticking feet. She stopped and perched herself just above the door.

A standard pincher strategy.

Each of the four jounin shared a mutual nod. Kakashi held up three of his fingers. Asuma took out his trench knives and slipped them on his fingers.

Kakashi dropped one of his fingers.

Gai reached into his pack and drew his nunchaku.

Kakashi dropped a second finger.

Kurenai already had her fingers ready for any genjutsu that was needed.

Kakashi dropped his last finger

Asuma dashed forward and reared back a chakra-laden fist. With a small grunt he punched the heavy double doors off their hinges and all four jounin rushed into the warehouse, fully prepared to take on any enemies within.

….Except there were none.

The warehouse was completely abandoned, except for one man, sitting in the middle of the large building with his face buried in his hands.

Kakashi relaxed his body and let out a sigh. "…So…whose bright idea was this?"

Kurenai and Asuma turned to Gai.

The hot-blooded jounin looked flabbergasted, "Friends,…I swear just a few hours ago this place was swarming with the enemies we seek."

"I was the one who suggested doing recon before just bursting in." Kurenai pointed out in an unladylike drone.

Asuma shook his head and lit up a cigarette, "Maybe we should talk to that guy over there." He suggested in a mumbling growl, tilting his head towards the man sitting in the middle of the warehouse.

At being mentioned, the man raised his head and looked at the four jounin. "I-If you're looking for the o-other's…they've…they've abandoned me." The man stuttered in a quiet voice that carried across the empty building.

"The others?" Kurenai questioned, approaching the man, "What 'others'?"

"Y-Y-You know wh-who I'm ta-talking about…" He mumbled as she approached.

"The revolutionaries?" The female jounin asked, cautiously continuing to approach the man.

The man nodded solemnly.

"Where have they gone?" Kurenai asked softly.

The man looked up deeply into the pretty jounin's red eyes, and then his eyes darted to her forehead, widening in surprise as if seeing her forehead protector for the first time. He frantically stood up, knocking his chair over in the process. "Li-L-Like I'd e-ever tell Konoha scum like you," He shouted, his eyes hardening. He swung forward with a punch, which the experienced jounin easily caught.

She held his captured hand tight, and formed a seal with her free hand. She glared at the man, forcing him to look into her exotic red eyes. Slowly, the mans eye lids fell, and he slumped over into her grasp.

Kakashi walked up to Kurenai as she laid the man out on the floor, "Will you be able to get the information out of him?"

She nodded, "Yeah, he shouldn't be too hard to break."

!-!-!-!-!

Half an hour later and the rogue cloud ninja was tied up in his chair. Kurenai stood behind him with her eyes closed and her fingers in the form of a seal. Kakashi, Asuma and Gai stood around her, watching with mild interest.

"_Shin Kessai no Jutsu."_ The genjutsu specialist muttered.

The man in the chair showed no visible change, except for a small fluttering under his eye lids. The entire warehouse was quiet for a few minutes as Kurenai stood behind her suspect, her eyes stayed closed and her fingers stayed in the same seal.

Suddenly, she spoke: "Where is the rest of your group?"

The man in the chair grunted and his body shifted.

Kurenai was silent for another minute before speaking again, "Where is the rest of your group?,!"

The suspect shifted again and mumbled something incoherent.

Kurenai scrunched her brow in concentration, then she asked again, this time more forcefully, "WHERE is the rest of your group?,!,?,!"

"In the mountains," The man blurted out. His voice had lost its nervous quality from before, but now it had been replaced with a light, dreamy voice, as if he wasn't consciously aware that he was speaking, which he wasn't.

"Which mountain?"

"Nawaka Mountain." The man answered in his breathy tone.

"And why did they leave you?"

"Because…Because they think I killed the Tsuchikage!"

"Did you kill the Tsuchikage?"

"NO!" The man shouted losing the light tone of his voice for just a second, "I…I didn't…"

"Tell the truth!" Kurenai demanded, concentrating harder on her technique.

"I…I…I didn't mean to."

"What's do you mean?"

"I…I… wasn't a-a-" The mans body began to shake and his eyes fluttered open, "What are you doing to me?,!"

Kurenai's eyes snapped open and she let out a sigh, "I lost control of the jutsu."

"What did you do to me?,!" The man demanded.

Kurenai ignored him as Asuma stepped up next to her, "It's okay," He said, patting her on the shoulder, "We got enough out of him."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?,!"

"Let's go," Kakashi spoke up over the yelling, "We've got to tell this to the Hokage."

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto boredly spun a kunai around his finger as he waited in the Raikage's reception room. Kankurou, Naruto's 'guard duty buddy', had fallen asleep in an uncomfortable chair with a copy of Icha Icha Paradise covering his face.

Naruto let out a bored sigh for what had to have been the fiftieth time that minute.

The doors to the Raikage's office burst open and Tsunade came marching out with a triumphant smile on her face.

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin at the unexpected arrival. Kankurou jerked awake with a snort.

"Did…did you get it done?" Naruto asked, "The treaty, I mean."

Tsunade nodded happily, "We've agreed on it, now we just have to work out the terms."

Naruto stood staring at his Hokage, not sure exactly how to react. He eventually decided on happiness because he didn't have to wait in the boring reception room anymore.

"Now come on," Tsunade urged him, "if we hurry we can catch the end of the exam."

!-!-!-!-!

A small group had gathered around the lift station in Hidden Cloud village. Hidden Cloud used a system of lifts to travel from mountain to mountain. Right now, they were waiting for the lift to come down carrying the survivors of the first Chuunin exam.

Slowly, the lift rattled down, on it stood about eighteen genin all huddled up together under blankets. There were the only ones who had passed. All the others had either given up before or been thrown off the mountain. So the victorious genin rode down on the lift, Konohamaru and his team at the forefront, smiling broadly despite their tiredness.

The group gathered at the lift station applauded as the lift descended. The crowd parted as Naruto and Tsunade pushed their way through.

Konohamaru waved excitedly as Naruto made his way to the lift, smiling broadly the whole way. "So you weaklings managed it, eh?" Naruto asked them as they got off the lift.

"Of course we did, asshole!" Konohamaru exclaimed crossly.

"Pssh, whatever," Naruto waved him off, "You're going to have to train extra hard to pass the next exam. Only losers don't pass the first exam, it's the second one you have to worry about now."

Despite his best efforts, Konohamaru couldn't mask his fear, "…Li-Like I c-care."

Naruto made to swipe at the younger boys head, but was interrupted by the arrival of Kakashi and his jounin companions.

"Hokage-sama, we have urgent news."

* * *

Jutsu:

_Shin Kessai no Jutsu/Truth Serum Technique - A genjutsu that persuades the victim to tell the truth. It can be blocked by those of strong mind, and its strength depends on the amount of chakra put into it by the user._


	25. Interlude!

I decided to change the name of this story. I know it's 'unprofessional' of me to this so late in the story, but I've never been good with names, and I decided that this one was simpler. It's just a small change anyways. I've also changed the summary, it now better reflects the theme of this story, ecspecially as we get closer and closer to the climax of Part 1. Yes, this is going to be more than one part, maybe even more than two.

Anyways, this chapter is short, and not a lot happens, but I had a mild case of writers block. I wanted to do much more with this chapter, but once I overcame my block and got the second half written, I just decided to post it.

As always, thanks to those of you who have reviewed, or added this story to their alerts, favorites, or c2's. Without you guys, I would have stopped writing this a long time ago. Also, as of yesterday, this fic is six months old. Half a year. I'm sorry that I can't update as fast as I did when I started all those months ago back in the summer, but this is a particularly hard part of the story to write, and I've got other things going on. Thank you for your paitence.

* * *

Naruto sat in the lobby of their hotel, leaning forward with rapt attention as Konohamaru and his team regaled him with the story of how they dominated the first exam. Of course, the story was greatly exaggerated-even Naruto could tell-but the blond still indulged the children by 'ohhing' and 'ahhing' and cheering at the right parts.

"And then, and then!" Stuttered Konohamaru as he continued on with his story, "This Mist bastard showed up out of nowhere and was all like, 'I'm gonna kick your ass!', but we weren't scared!"

"Not at all!" Moegi chimed in.

"And then we really kicked his ass!" Konohamaru continued, "I'm pretty sure he was crying after we were done with him."

Naruto leaned back with a satisfied smile on his face and crossed his arms behind his head, "Yep! I knew you guys would win. I'm the one who taught you, after all."

"Hem hem!" Someone loudly cleared their throat behind the blond, "I do believe some of the praise should go to me, as I am their teacher."

Naruto turned his head and saw Ebisu standing behind him with his arms folded across his chest.

"Pssh, whatever, Closet-Pervert." Naruto said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Ebisu nearly choked at the use of his hated nickname, but managed to recover. "Ahem…Forgive me, Naruto, but I must take my students up to their rooms. They're going to need a full nights sleep if they want to pass the next exam."

The three kids looked to Naruto, waiting for what he had to say on the matter. He merely gave them a small smile and waved them off. "You heard the pervert. Go get some sleep. If you don't pass the next exam, I'm going to kick your ass!"

The three genin hurriedly ran off, knowing that a threat from Naruto usually wasn't an empty one. Ebisu walked off too, trailing behind his hurried students at a much slower pace.

Naruto was alone at his place in the lobby for just a few minutes before Kakashi wandered by carrying a steaming cup of tea.

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei, what's up?"

"Hmm?" Kakashi hummed before turning to Naruto, "Oh…Naruto, you're still up? It's getting kind of late."

Naruto shrugged as Kakashi came and sat next to him, "I had such a boring day guarding the Hokage that I'm all restless and can't get any sleep."

"Ah, I'm sure you're also excited for Konohamaru and his friends."

"Yeah," Naruto said with a nod, "But I knew they were going to win anyways."

"So you're that confident in your teaching ability?" Kakashi asked, still holding the full tea cup. Naruto was starting to wonder how the Jounin was planning on drinking it.

"Um…not really. Sure, I taught them some things and helped them get stronger, but I knew they would win because they're strong kids and they've got guts. No matter how hard I kicked their asses in training they still got up and were ready for more."

"I understand," Kakashi spoke, "I used to get that feeling from you guys back in the day. …Back when you were all so cute. It seems you're learning what it means to be a sensei."

Naruto shook his head, "I'm not their sensei, that title belongs to that Closet-Pervert."

"Nah," Kakashi said with a shake of his head, ignoring the strange nickname, "Ebisu never should have become a team leader. Sure, he's a great teacher, but he's been teaching so long that it's been a while since he's actually taken a mission. Those kids need someone with more battle experience, like you."

Naruto secretly swelled with pride at the compliment, but tried not to show it. "So what was it you were talking to the old lady about earlier, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm? Oh, that. It seems that we've found the one who killed the Tsuchikage."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but we weren't able to get much information out of him." Kakashi continued on in a slightly disappointed tone, "But he did tell us where the others who attacked the pre-exam ball are." Kakashi turned to look as someone approached, "Oh! Kazekage-sama, you're not sleeping either?"

"No formalities are needed," Gaara spoke as he took a seat with the two Konoha ninja. "Even these days without the Shukaku I can't seem to get very much sleep."

Kakashi looked taken aback by the casual mention of the demon, but Naruto obviously didn't care, "Ha, that sucks for you. I'm glad my demon doesn't keep me up at night."

Kakashi nearly choked, a strange occurrence since he had yet to take a sip of his tea. "Naruto! You know you're not supposed to talk about that."

Naruto sheepishly scratched his head, "…Oh yeah. Well…it's not like anyone heard me, the only other people in the lobby are Shikamaru and Temari." Indeed, Temari and Shikamaru were the only other ones in the lobby. They sat well on the other side of the room, once again locked in an epic chess match.

"Geez," Naruto muttered, "Every time I see the two of them they're playing that stupid game."

"Yeah," Gaara agreed. He cautiously looked around the room to make sure no one else was around and then looked back to Temari to make sure she stayed well out of ear shot. He leaned forward with a mischievous grin, "Kankurou and I have a bet going on when they'll just throw the chess board away and start making-out."

Both Kakashi and Naruto gaped at the uncharacteristic behavior of the Kazekage. In a flash, the mischievous grin fell off his face and he leaned back in his chair, his face going back to it's normally blank expression.

Kakashi stared at the Kazekage with his one visible eyebrow raised, he turned and looked over to Temari and Shikamaru on the other side of the room. He turned back to the Kazekage. "Before the third exam." The jounin blurted.

If Gaara had eyebrows, he would have raised them in surprise. "What?,!"

"I'll put down five Ryu that says they'll be kissing before the end of the third exam." Kakashi explained, no doubt hiding a mischievous smile under his mask.

"I say it'll happen on the way back, after the exams." Naruto added, "I'll put down five Ryu on that."

Gaara stared at the two Konoha nin in surprise for a few seconds before allowing a ghost of a smile to light up his face, "All right, place your bets on the table."

!-!-!-!-!

Over on the other side of the lobby, Temari and Shikamaru were deeply engrossed in their chess game.

A round of rambunctious laughter sounded from Naruto on the other side of the room.

The two players remained totally oblivious.

!-!-!-!-!

The Raikage's tower was a symbol of power and strength for the Lightening Country. It was finely crafted and the most well maintained building in all of Hidden Could village. Yet under this beautiful, regal administrative building lay a world that not many were able to see, and those who did see it were far from lucky.

Twisting stone corridors barely lit by lamps lined on the wall. There were multiple passage ways, some of which lead to dead-ends, others lead to interrogation rooms and prisoner holding. This was the home of the Hidden Cloud's ANBU, arguably the most powerful and efficient ANBU in the ninja world, and standing right in the middle of the ANBU's home was Tsunade, fifth Hokage of Hidden Leaf and the first friendly Leaf ninja to step foot in the headquarters in nearly ten years. Next to her stood the Tsuchikage.

It was an intense silence that blanketed the halls of the ANBU HQ, which was only made worse by the eeriness of the location. Luckily, the two Kage's were saved from the awkward silence by the opening of a nearby door. Out of the door stepped the Raikage, followed by a Hidden Cloud ninja decked out in his ANBU garb.

The ANBU stepped forward, bowing to each foreign Kage respectfully, "Tsuchikage-sama, Hokage-sama, I regret to inform you that even our best interrogation specialist have yet to crack him. He seems to have triggered a defense mechanism, probably taught to him by the rebel faction."

The Tsuchikage stepped forward angrily, "So is he the one or not!,?" He demanded, "WAS HE THE ONE WHO KILLED MY FATHER?,!,?"

"We…don't know, Tsuchikage-sama," The ANBU answered, "Although Kurenai-san reported that he confessed, we have yet to get an official confession off of him."

"THEN TRY HARDER!"

The ANBU stood strong in front of the powerful leader, "We have tried all that is available to us." He answered. "There is nothing else for us to do."

Tsunade looked up and met the eyes of the Raikage, who had remained silent. The Raikage meet her gaze with a questioning one of his own, arching one of his regal, blond eyebrows.

"I know a man who could help." Tsunade spoke.

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama," The ANBU addressed her respectfully, but with a hint of disdain, "But Cloud Village's ANBU are ranked as the best, who else could possibly help?"

"Do not concern yourself with it, Hotaru." The Raikage spoke up, placing his hand on the ANBU's shoulder, "…These are just the strange times we live in."

The ANBU seemed shocked, "What do you mean, sir?"

The Raikage seemed to ignore Hotaru's question, keeping his gaze on Tsunade, "…It is strange times indeed when Morino Ibiki will walk these halls, not as an enemy, but as an ally."

!-!-!-!-!

A day and a half later, back in Konoha, Ibiki sat alone in his office, boredly going through some paperwork. He let the paper fall to his desk with a apathetic sigh. _Seems like all there is these days is paperwork…_

The doors to his office suddenly exploded open and Ibiki quickly stood up, reaching under his desk for a hidden kunai. He settled down as he realized that it was just his assistant Joshu. She was a plain looking woman, in a Chuunin vest with short black hair and round glasses perched on her face. She was quite a plain looking girl, so Ibiki was quite surprised when she approached him about apprenticing under him. His shock quickly turned to awe as he saw what a natural talent she had for the job. It really brought a look of pride to his scarred, disfigured face.

"What is it, Joshu?" Ibiki questioned, going back to his paper work.

His apprentice spoke in a relatively calm voice, despite her urgency in nearly knocking his door off its hinges. "A letter from the Hokage. She's ordering you down to Hidden Cloud, where you are to interrogate a man suspected of killing the Tsuchikage."

Ibiki looked up from his paperwork in interest, "The Tsuchikage has been killed?"

"Apparently."

"And she wants me to interrogate suspect?"

"Indeed, you are also allowed to bring a team of ANBU with you, for protection on the journey."

Ibibki's scarred face twisted into a sadistic smile, "Well let's get going then."


	26. Rising Action!

I don't really like the way this one turned out, but I'm hoping you guys will like it. The good news is that this whole Chuunin exam story arc is almost over, the next chapter will be the climax. Last chapter didn't get many hits, I'm wondering if that's because of the changes I made to the title and people just didn't notice, or if I did something wrong to lose some of my readers.

Anyways, for those of you who did read, thank you, and once again thank you to those who have reviewed, or added this story to thier alerts, favorites or c2's.

Also, I have forums now, have for a while actually, so check them out.

* * *

Her feet crunched lightly on the grass, which was lightly sprinkled with snow. Her steps were slow and deliberate as she searched the area for a familiar face. The area she was in was a wide, circular plain of grass, which was surrounded by a small forested area. Every few feet, the grass was marred by a mark of some sort. A crater or crack in the ground that indicated the area had seen many battles or training sessions. It was, after all, a training field.

She spotted her target somewhere near the middle of the field, sitting cross-legged with his orange clad back to her. As she saw him, her green eyes lit up with a bit of mirth as a mischievous plan entered her mind. _This'll be payback for all those pranks he's pulled, _She thought to herself, letting a side of out that hadn't been seen in a long time.

She did her best to mask her presence and slowly sneak up on her blond haired comrade, she was, of course, a ninja, so being stealthy wasn't very hard. As she approached him, he didn't make a move to indicate that he knew she was coming, and so, with a devious smile, she lunged at him, hoping to catch him unawares.

Imagine her surprise when she lunged at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, only to have him pop into a smoke cloud. A hand grabbed her arm from behind and forced it to her side while another arm snaked around her shoulder to her neck, she managed to get her hand up just in time to stop him from getting her in a complete chokehold.

"ehehehehe," He giggled into her ear, "I've got you, Sakura-chan!,!,!"

The girl let out a groan, all the while struggling against her friend, "Dammit, Naruto! Let me go!"

"I don't know." He said, putting on a good act of actually thinking the decision over, "You _did _try to sneak up on me."

"If you don't let me go I'm going to punch you in the balls!" In a flash Naruto had let Sakura go and was standing a good five feet away from her. "That's better." Sakura muttered, "What were you doing out here anyways?"

Naruto was still wary about his female comrade after such a threat to his manhood, "Uh…I was meditating before you came."

Sakura was puzzled, "Meditating? I though you were training those kids."

Naruto shrugged, "I was-still am-actually." He said, "They're doing stealth exercises in the forest, I sent my clones after them because I needed to meditate."

"Meditate?" Sakura questioned again, still not any less puzzled, "Since when do you meditate?"

"Since I spent time with ero-sennin," Naruto answered.

Sakura stood patiently, waiting for further explanation.

"We spent a lot of time over those two-and-a-half years working on controlling…" He stopped, he'd never had trouble mentioning Kyuubi before, but for someone reason it seemed wrong to do so in front of Sakura, as if she might be tainted by the beasts name. "…The fox." He eventually said, causing the girl to flinch, "After a while of messing around with the demon's chakra, I started hearing his voice in my head and stuff, and I always felt like he was watching me, right over my shoulder. Ero-sennin said that it was because I was using his chakra so much and our charka's were mixing more, so he made me meditate. I don't know how, but it worked."

Sakura took a minute to digest all that, but then she looked him in the eye, her own face a bit grave, "So, is that happening again?" She asked, "Are you hearing the Kyuubi again."

Naruto shook his head, "No…not exactly," He answered uncertainly, "It's just that I've been feeling like someone's been watching, like…they've been following me. I don't know how to explain it exactly. I don't think it's the Kyuubi, but I don't know what else it could be."

Sakura opened her mouth to say something.

"YO!" Before she could get the words out, she was interrupted by another Naruto marching out of the tree line and into the field. Behind him he drug a rope, which was attached to a net, which contained three genin; Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon.

The real Naruto pulled a timer out of his jacket pocket and examined it, "You guys got caught that fast!,?" He exclaimed, "I can't believe you actually managed to pass the Second Exam! If you don't get any better, you wont be able to pass the final exam!" A general sound of disagreement and anger came from the net. "Whatever," Naruto shouted, he turned to address his clone, "Let them go again and give them five minutes to hide."

The clone nodded and did as he was told, the three genin springing from the net quickly and fleeing back into the forest. After that, Naruto turned to Sakura, "Come on, I'm feeling better now, let's go see if this place has any good ramen."

Sakura followed Naruto as he made to leave the training area, "As long as you're paying!…Hey, what about those kids?"

"My clone can handle it for now." Naruto said with a nonchalant wave.

!-!-!-!-!

Morino Ibiki stood at the threshold of the Hidden Cloud's ANBU Headquarters, behind him stood his assistant with her hands held behind her back. It had taken the two of them nearly a week to travel from Konoha to Kumo. During that time the Second Chuunin exam had taken place. He had been told that only two genin teams from Konoha had passed the second exam, and only one from Suna. It didn't really matter much to him, though, since his visit to Hidden Could was entirely unrelated to the Chuunin Exam.

The heavy steel door in front of him opened and revealed a weasel masked ANBU member, "Follow me, Ibiki-san." The ANBU said, quickly leading the scarred Leaf ninja down the twisted, dark corridors. His assistant followed behind him, absentmindedly examining her surroundings.

Ibiki was eventually led down a corridor and was only mildly surprised to see a familiar face towards the end, the Hokage Tsunade. "Welcome, Ibiki." The woman greeted him.

Ibiki bowed low to his superior, "Any luck thus far, Hokage-sama?"

The Hokage shook her head with a frustrated sigh, "No, do you think you can crack him?"

Ibiki shrugged his broad shoulders, "We'll have to see."

"He's in that room." Tsunade said, with an indicating tilt of her head. Ibiki nodded and strode right into the room with his assistant in tow.

!-!-!-!-!

Tsunade stood with her arms crossed, gazing silently forward through a window. The window looked into a small interrogation room, where the man accused of killing the Tsuchikage sat bound and gagged in a very uncomfortable looking chair. Although he in actuality he wasn't just sitting there, he squirmed and yelled as loud as his bound mouth would allow as Ibiki did his job.

It was with a sick fascination that Tsunade continued watching on, the sight of violence didn't disturb her, she had seen much worse. What did puzzle her was Ibiki's new assistant, who stood in a corner of the torture room taking down notes with a studious expression. Something about the assistant's expression was familiar to Tsunade, yet totally different from anything she had seen at the same time.

The Hokage turned away from the viewing window to turn to the Raikage, who stood next to her with the ANBU agent she had come to know as Hotaru. "How goes the search for the renegade group?" Tsunade asked.

"We haven't found the rest of them yet, all we know is that they are on Nawaka Mountain. That is a very large mountain, they could be anywhere, and we don't even know if that information was correct."

"I'm sure the Tsuchikage is happy with that." Tsunade sardonically muttered.

"You can't blame him," The Raikage responded in sagely tone, "His father and mentor was killed."

"Yeah…" Tsunade said, followed by a frustrated breath. She turned back to the viewing window. Ibiki still hadn't made any progress worth noting, and with another frustrated sigh Tsunade was suddenly wishing she had a warm cup of sake.

!-!-!-!-!

"…The time is approaching."

"…You know, I think that's the first words you've said in a month."

"We'll collect the bijuu during the Third exam."

"_How convenient_…"

!-!-!-!-!

Weeks had passed and Naruto was still feeling that strange feeling, although he still couldn't determine it's source, but he was putting that behind him for this day, because today was the day that all his hard work would come to fruition, it was the day of the Third Exam. He would finally see if all the training he had pounded into those kids had actually sunk in.

Right now, he was one of the many spectators who were trying to push their way through into the stadium-which was unexcitedly similar to the one back in Konoha. He and his peers pushed through the crowds, making their way toward the stairs so they could get good seats.

As they entered the stadium, Naruto-along with everyone else-was completely oblivious to a dark figure on a distant rooftop who stood tall and still in his black cloak with red clouds, watching silently with his red eyes.

!-!-!-!-!

Down under the earth, under the Raikage's tower, Morino Ibiki worked his magic in an interrogation room. For nearly three weeks he had been working on this one suspect, the longest amount of time he had ever spent, but he was making progress.

"Speak!" He shouted to the bruised and broken ninja before him. The ninja remained silent. Ibiki nodded to his assistant, Joshu. She clicked a button on a wicked looking device that delivered an electric shock through the accused Ninja's body. She looked to her master for the sign to stop the torture but none came.

Suddenly, a garbled message came from behind the rouge ninja's bound mouth. Ibiki quickly snatched the binding off the mans mouth and freed him to vocalize. "THE RED EYES!" The man shouted in a pained and tortured voice, "THE RED EYES MADE ME DO IT!,!,!,!"

And as the man made this startling revelation, Joshu's eyes lit up with a hidden interest which went unseen by a startled Ibiki.

!-!-!-!-!

A top a tall mountain, a fair distance away from Hidden Cloud and only accessible by a series of lifts, there was a tall, monumental building. It was ornately carved out of stone, with tall spires pointing towards the sky. Standing by the large double doors of the building were two tall, golden statues, standing as eternal guards. The statues were dressed in the elegant robes of the Raikage.

Before this building stood a large man. His fair skinned face stared up at the building under his straw hat, his blue eyes were gazing upon the face of one of the statues.

With a scoff, the large man strode forward to the large doors, his red on black cloak billowing behind him with the cold winds of the high mountain top.


	27. Climax!

Woah, I almost hit the two month mark. Sorry about that. I'm not going to feed you some lies about how I've been too busy, or had computer troubles. The truth is that my inspiration for this story is practically dead. This can be mostly blamed on the fact that I no longer really have any intrest in Naruto at all. But don't worry. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I refuse to let this die.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, or added this story to their alerts, favorites or c2's.

* * *

"YOSH! THESE SEATS ARE SURE TO GIVE US AN EXCELLENT VIEWING OF THE FIREY YOUTH SPIRITS OF OUR YOUNG COMRADES!,!,!,!"

"Lee," Tenten muttered, "Shut up, you're making us look stupid in front of the other ninja."

Lee opened his mouth to make another asinine exclamation, but Neji's hand quickly intercepted his word-hole. "Let's just settle down and watch the exams." The Hyuuga droned. Lee obliged to his rivals suggestion, but refused to quell the fires that burned brightly in his dark eyes. Next to Neji, Tenten and Lee were Hinata and her team minus Akamaru, as the guards at the front gate had deemed him much too large to be carried into the stadium. Kiba was still muttering curse words under his breath about that.

In the row behind those two team sat the Ino-Shika-Chou trio, accompanied by Temari and Kankurou of the sand. Finally, the last addition to the group was Naruto and Sakura, who sat down next to Team Asuma. Naruto had been surprisingly quiet in preparation for the exams. Considering the fact that Konohamaru's match was up first, Sakura and the others expected him to be just as rowdy as Lee.

"Dammit," Naruto cursed.

Sakura turned her attention to her teammate with an inquisitive look, "What's wrong?"

Naruto stood up huffily, "I've got to go and take a piss right quick! I'll be back in a minute!"

Sakura narrowed her eyes and a vein throbbed in her forehead, "You don't have to say that so loud…"

But Naruto obviously didn't care as he rudely pushed pass all the other people sitting in the row and headed for the bathroom at a brisk jog.

!-!-!-!-!

The way to the bathroom was clearly marked by signs on the stadium wall, so it took no time for Naruto to find it, and even less time for him to finish his business. He was in a hurry. Judging by the sounds from the stadium the matches hadn't started yet, but they were do to at any moment. He almost rushed out of the bathroom without washing his hands, but quickly through better of that and followed through with the proper sanitary procedures.

He looked down into the sink bowl and rinsed his hands off, then turned the faucet off and gazed up into the mirror mounted on the wall.

That's when he saw him.

Standing behind him, making no attempt to mask his presence in his bold red on black cloak. Had Naruto been afforded with more time, he would have cursed himself for dropping his guard and letting the ninja sneak up on him. But Naruto didn't have any time to think, he didn't have time for over exaggerated shocked expressions, all he had time to do was attack, and that's what he did.

He pivoted on his heel and swung his right arm out in a backhand punch that was easily ducked. Naruto continued on his momentum and let his left leg fly out in a round house kick, which was blocked by the elite ninja before him.

"Now is not the time for games, Uzumaki Naruto." Uchiha Itachi spoke in that soft voice of his as he continued to hold Naruto's blocked kick.

Naruto glared at the ninja, his eyes starting to shade red. He tensed the muscles in his right leg and pushed off the ground with it, spinning in mid air and kicking out with it. Itachi dropped Naruto's left foot and took a step back to dodge the right one.

Once he was back on two feet, Naruto lunged forward with a punch to the Uchiha's exposed chest, for a second it looked like the hit would land, but he felt his fist blocked, although the movement from his enemy was to fast for him to see. For half a second Naruto stood with his outstretched arm held by Itachi, and in the next half second he found himself brutally flying through the wall of the bathroom as Itachi landed a lightening quick kick.

Naruto curled up on the ground as his body reeled from the pain of the kick. His eyes were clenched close, but his ears picked up the sound of Itachi stepping closer. He knew there was only one way to stand up to an enemy like this, and before he even consciously made the decision, he felt the demon chakra pumping though his system.

!-!-!-!-!

Tsunade immediately stood up from her seat with the rest of the Kage at the top of the stadium as she saw two of her Jounin approaching. "Kakashi, Gai, what's the meaning of this?"

"The prisoner confessed," Kakashi answered, doing a remarkable job of keeping his cool as his statement drew the attention to the rest of the Kage.

"And?" Tsunade demanded.

"He said the 'Red Eyes' made him do it."

Tsunade's face was completely blank for a moment.

"The Red Eyes?,!" The Tsuchikage exploded, "What kind of nonsense is that?"

"Uchiha Itachi," Tsunade answered, "And probably some one else from Akatsuki."

The Tsuchikage stood from his seat, "You said this 'Akatsuki' wanted the Jinchuriki! Why the hell would they murder my father!,?"

"The goals of Akatsuki are cloudy," Tsunade hurriedly explained, "Itachi especially." She added, "But we do know where else they would go." She turned to the Raikage, "You guys still have that scroll?"

The color drained from the Raikage's face, "Yes, but only certain people can access _that place._"

"And your brother, Denkou Raihanama, member of Akatsuki, is one of them."

The Raikage's lightening blue eyes widened. "We must stop him!"

"Yes," Tsunade said with a nod, "But we'll need to do it quietly. Drawing attention to the situation could cause needless deaths, and could lead to Akatsuki escaping."

"The primary concern should be for the citizens in the stadium." The Kazekage spoke up.

"The Kazekage is right," The Raikage consented, "I'll order my ANBU to increase security over the entire stadium area. The rest of the city should be relatively empty, so we wont have too much to worry about. Meanwhile, I'll send a few of my elites to take care of my brother at the temple."

"No," Tsunade interjected, "You focus your men here, at the stadium, at least for now."

"And what exactly is so important in this stadium?" The ever cynical Mizukage asked.

"One of my ninja," Tsunade answered, "He's a jinchuriki, if Akatsuki were to attack, their first target would be here." She turned to her other two ninja, "Gai, Kakashi, I want you to head to the temple, you know where it's at, right?" Both jounin nodded, "Good, before you go, contact Asuma and Kurenai and tell them to get Naruto out of the stadium." Once again, both Jounin nodded, "Go!". At the order, both of them jumped away.

A chuckle arose from the Mizukage, "Well, I guess it will finally be seen if this … 'Akatsuki' was enough to warrant a peace treaty between our villages."

!-!-!-!-!

"Sakura!"

The girl nearly feel backwards as her Jounin sensei appeared in front of her, balancing on a row of seats.

"Kakashi-sensei! What're you doing here?"

"Where's Naruto?" Kakashi demanded

"Um…He went to the restroom a few minutes ago, he should be back any minute…" The girl informed him, uneased by her sensei's hurried nature.

"Dammit. Asuma, Kurenai," He addressed the two Jounin sitting with their students, "Go find Naruto, you'll understand once you find him. You kids stay here, don't leave the stadium for anything." With that said, Kakashi leapt off the row of seats and disappeared in a blur. Asuma and Kurenai immediately went into action, already expecting the worse. The younger ninja around them sat still, completely confused by what had just transpired.

"Naruto…" Sakura muttered.

!-!-!-!-!

Itachi stepped through the hole in the bathroom wall, and was immediately forced back through by a glowing hand of chakra. His body flew though the empty bathroom, collided with the wall on the opposite side, and bust through to the outside of the stadium.

Naruto, his body covered in the red chakra of the nine-tailed fox, followed after him, jumping through the new hole in the wall and dropping to the ground outside of the stadium.

Itachi was no where to be found.

"I've told you already," The voice came from behind him, "No. Time. For. Games."

Naruto wheeled around with a swipe of his chakra claw. Itachi caught the attack. Naruto swung again with his other claw. It was also blocked. The Uchiha prodigy held both glowing red arms without fear of the tainted chakra. "I was willing to humor you before," Itachi droned, "But you must understand that I am on a time limit."

Once again, Naruto's body was wrecked as a lightening fast kick pounded him in the gut. Itachi held his grip on both arms , and Naruto was left to fall forward into his chest. The red chakra was beginning to fade from his system already. But he wasn't down yet.

"HARUUGH!" Naruto swung his head forward with all his might and head butted Itachi. The surprise movement was enough for Naruto to break his enemies grip with his demon-powered muscles. Naruto spun and whipped the Akatsuki member with his chakra tail, sending him stumbling back.

Itachi fell back, hit the stadium wall, and exploded into a puff of smoke.

"DAMMIT!" Naruto cursed. He gripped his stomach as he still felt the vestiges of Itachi's last kick. Almost too late he felt the presence behind. He ducked as he felt an attack coming, but was surprised when it wasn't from Itachi. A knuckle-knife flew through the air and pierced the stalking Uchiha through the heart. This time he turned into a tree trunk and was gone for the moment.

Naruto looked up at this saviors and saw Asuma and Kurenai descending from the hole in the wall. "We'll take over from here, kid."

!-!-!-!-!

Kakashi and Gai, arguably the fastest Jounin Leaf Village had to offer, were now putting their speed to the test as the raced through the streets of Cloud village, their bodies nothing more than a blur to the average citizen.

They made it to the edge of the city, to the lift station that carried people to other mountains in the range. He jumped on the lift lines and ran along them, not slowing down one bit.

There target was soon coming into sight, a glittering gold temple one the top of the tallest mountain in the range.

!-!-!-!-!

Denkou Raihanma had finally made it to his prize.

It lay at the very back of the temple, guarded by no one. It nothing but a simple scroll to most, but he knew it's true purpose. The scroll contained the only known method of summoning the six tailed demon, Raijuu.

He grinned hungrily as he reached for his prize, but suddenly there was a shattering boom as the door to the temple was blow off it hinges. Raihanma turned around to see two Jounin, Leaf village if their headbands were to be trusted, were staring him down.

"Denkou Raihanma of Akatsuki," The tall, white haired one shouted, "We have come to apprehend you."

"GIVE UP TO OUR FIRERY YOUTH SPIRITS!,!,!,!"


	28. Falling Action!

I'm back with my longest chapter yet. Sorry for the long, long wait, but just recently my inspiration has returned and I've been writing like a mad man. Even though it took me almost two months to get this update up, it wrote the majority of it in just the past three days. The next chapter is completely planned out in my head, so it shouldn't take long for it to get out.

As always, I'd like to thank my fans who have reviewed, or add this story to their alerts, favorites or c2's. Thanks for your paitence.

* * *

Denkou Raihanma chuckled at Gai's asinine exclamation. It started quiet but grew with a thundering crescendo until he tossed his blond head back and roared his amusement. The stone walls of the temple echoed his laughter back and forth until it was all that Kakashi and Gai could hear.

Neither of the jounin were amused.

Raihanma slowly regained himself and offered the two a nonchalant glance. "Is this the best my brother has to send?" He questioned, a bit of amusement sinking back into his voice, "Two foreigners with big mouths? Some Kage he turned out to be."

Kakashi remained silent, only offering up a one eyed glare in his defense. Surprisingly, Gai also had nothing else to say.

Raihanma was happy to continue on uninterrupted. "No matter." He said. He shrugged his shoulders and his Akatsuki cloak, which was large enough to fit two normal men, fell to the ground. He reached to his back and hefted his large war hammer from its home. "My Kujitogu will enjoy smashing you till your guts squeeze out."

Neither Kakashi nor Gai showed any reaction as Raihanma sunk into a hard fighting stance with his war hammer raised. "Well? What're you waiting for? Aren't you going to show me your…" he paused and chuckled, "'youthful spirits'?"

Kakashi and Gai shared a secretive look before answering the question together. "Gladly."

There was a crumbling noise above Raihanma. He glanced up slowly, just in time to get hit in the face by a piece of falling debris. He scowled at the small stone as it bounced off his forehead and hit the ground. There was another crumbling sound, this time much louder and accompanied by a dull roar from outside the temple.

Raihanma glanced back to Gai and Kakashi and he _knew _that both of them were smiling secretive grins at him-although he could only see one.

Another sound came from the roof of the temple, but this time it was a loud crack like lightening as the ceiling buckled and caved in. Raihanma was a big man, and wasn't considered very fast by ninja standards but dodging falling debris from a caved in ceiling _was _in his repertoire. All it took was one mighty leap backwards and he was easily out of the falling stones' reach.

It was the green flurry of fists and feet that followed through the hole that he wasn't fast enough to block. He flew back as the surprise attack connected with his chin. With surprising agility, he managed to right himself in midair and land not-so gracefully on his oversized feet.

He had just a brief second to flash an overzealous smirk before two hands shot out of the pure stone beneath him and grabbed him by the ankles.

"_Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu!"_

The next thing Raihanma knew he was up to his neck in stone and Kakashi and Gai were standing before him, one with a big cheesy grin and a thumbs up, the other with a lazy, half-lidded gaze. Behind them, the two Jounin at the entrance popped into a puff of smoke. Gai turned to his 'eternal rival' and gave him a bug-eyed glare. "Kakashi-kun, next time I allow you to make a kage bunshin of my beautiful self, please do not have him say something foolish."

Kakashi raised a lackadaisical eyebrow, "You say stuff about 'youth spirit' all the time."

"Yes, but the Kage bunshin you created was not fiery or youthful in his delivery! Also, he should have given a good guy pose afterwards!"

"…Do I even want to know what a 'good guy pose' is?"

As the two bickered, or it would be better to say while Gai bickered and Kakashi pretended to listen, Raihanma shifted around in his stone prison. Small sparks of lightening crackled around his skin and hair and his face lit up with a lightening sparked grin.

Little did he know, however, that as he began to make his move to free himself, both Kakashi and Gai watched him out the corner of their eyes, fully prepared.

!-!-!-!-!

"So this is it, huh? This is what we Kage's have amounted to? This 'great threat' Akatsuki has been left to just a couple of jounin while we sit here watching children fight each other. I-"

"Mizukage-sama," Tsunade interrupted, not bothering to take her eyes from the on going matches of the Chuunin exam. "…Shut up."

The Mizukage's nonchalant appearance disappeared as his lip curled into a disgusted sneer, "Why you…! Raikage-sama, surely you aren't going to let this _guest _insult me like that!"

"She's right, Mizukage-sama. Her village has the most experience with the Akatsuki threat, she knows best how to deal with the situation. Talking will get us nowhere at this point."

"And how, exactly, is this 'dealing with the situation'!" It was the Tsuchikage who was shouting this time, "One of those men killed my father!"

"The man who had your father killed, Tsuchikage-sama, was Uchiha Itachi." Tsunade spoke again, still not bothering to look up, "Itachi is perhaps the most intelligent ninja in Akatsuki. I know that if we were to send a full battalion of ninja after him, he would flee and we would be no closer to catching him and avenging your father. My ninja will handle this threat."

The Tsuchikage opened his mouth to say something else but Gaara's voice overrode his. "The next match is beginning," Spoke the Kazekage who had remained quiet thus far.

!-!-!-!-!

Down on the battle field, the last two competitors were being dragged off the field and the examiner stepped up to announce the next match.

"Will Sarutobi Konohamaru and Setsudanki Ishimaru please step up!" The examiner shouted flamboyantly.

Konohamaru strode into the arena with full confidence that he could take down whoever had been chosen as his opponent. It was when he saw that his opponent was the very same Rock ninja that he had picked a fight with (a fight that he had to be bailed out of by Naruto) that his confidence plummeted.

The opposing ninja chuckled and cracked his knuckles with the sound of tumbling boulders. "Heh, heh, there's no one to save your ass now, kid. I'm gonna enjoy smashing you."

Konohamaru managed to swallow his fear in one mighty gulp and proclaim loudly enough for the entire stadium to hear: "I'd like to see you try, you over grown, hairless freak!"

Meanwhile, his thoughts were much less defiant: _I'll make you proud, Naruto-niisan._

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto stared at the two Jounin who had come to his rescue. He knew he needed it, considering the opponent he was up against, but his pride forced him to glare at them defiantly as if they had done something wrong by coming to his rescue. He opened his mouth to say something in his usual childish attitude. Something along the lines of: 'What makes you think I need your help" or "I've got this taken care of" or "Just because he's the strongest ninja I've ever met doesn't mean I can't take him." But all these things died in his throat as the demon chakra faded from his system and took his anger with it. He knew that he should be welcoming the help of these more experienced Jounin instead of shunning it by saying foolish things.

However, none of that really mattered since Naruto couldn't say anything at all at that moment. The best he was able to manage was a chocked gurgle before his body collapsed to the ground.

"Geez, he gives us that defiant look, but doesn't even have the energy to stand up." Said Asuma to Kurenai. _Not that I blame him, _Asuma continued in his mind as his gaze shifted to Itachi, _considering the enemy he's facing alone, I'm surprised he lasted this long._

"What's the plan?" Kurenai asked as she also kept her eyes on Itachi, who was content to wait for them to make their move.

"You take the kid and get out of here." Asuma ordered.

"What?,!"

"Your genjutsu had no affect on him last time, remember?" Asuma reminded her, "Plus, as adults it's our job to protect the youth of our village, and when it comes to matters concerning Akatsuki this kid is more important than either of us."

Kurenai regarded the bearded man with concern written over her pretty features, "I don't like to hear you talk like that."

Asuma chuckled, "I don't plan on dying." Kurenai didn't seem reassured, but she chose to keep her mouth shut. Asuma continued, "I'll try to distract him while you get Naruto away." Kurenai nodded.

Satisfied, Asuma led his fingers through a series of quick seals. "_Fuuton: Kaze Dangan no Jutsu!". _The bearded jounin took in a large gulp of air and expelled it as a compressed ball of wind directly at Itachi.

Asuma didn't see Itachi's hands move, nor did he even hear the prodigy speak the techniques name, all he knew was that a current of electricity shielded the Uchiha from his attack.

_What a prick! _Asuma cursed internally, _He could have easily dodged that attack, but he choose to show off and counter it instead._

With a muttered curse and one last look at Kurenai, Asuma launched from the stadium wall. He flipped once in mid air and his knuckle knives flared to life with chakra. He descended on the immobile Uchiha's position with a searing cross strike of his two blades.

Only the Uchiha wasn't there anymore, he was exactly one foot to the left, just out of reach of Asuma's blades.

"As I told Naruto-kun, Asuma-san, there is no time for games."

"I only like to play games with one kid, and you sure as hell ain't him."

"Hmph."

Asuma turned around quickly to make sure Kurenai was safely getting away with Naruto. Itachi dashed after her as she tried to make her escape.

Asuma hurled one of his knives at Itachi's head. The Uchiha turned around and caught the projectile easily.

"Hey, dickhead, I'm your opponent here!"

Itachi came to a stop and turned around, "Fine, Asuma-san. As it stands now, you know too much for me to allow you to live anyways. Kurenai-san will not get far."

Asuma stared Itachi down, making sure not look him directly in the eyes. "Heh, cocky bastards like you really piss me off!" And with that he charged, his sole knuckle knife blazing to life with chakra.

!-!-!-!-!

_Damn it! _Kurenai cursed as she made her way through the stadium with Naruto over her shoulders. _My genjutsu may not be helpful against his Sharingan, but I don't know what makes Asuma think those knives of his are going to do any better. I've got to get him some help…but first…_

She skidded to a stop in the empty hallway of the arena as her thoughts trailed off. To her left was a broom closet and she quickly marched to it and threw the door open. The closet was entirely empty, not even any brooms, which was perfect for what she needed it for. She took the unconscious body of Naruto and ungracefully dropped him in the empty closet.

"Sorry, Naruto." She spoke to the unhearing teen, "But to carry you around all this time would cause problems. I'll be back with a couple of familiar faces in just a minute." With that said, she slammed the door and took off down the hallway again.

_Hokage-sama said she wanted to keep this small, but there's no way I'm letting Asuma take on that MONSTER by himself._

!-!-!-!-!

Konohamaru pushed himself off the ground. He managed to wearily stand on two wobbly legs and stare at his approaching opponent. So far, the match hadn't gone the way the young Leaf ninja had hoped it would, this fact was indicated by the dirty, grimy appearance of his clothes and the trails of blood that leaked out of his mouth, nose, and a dozen other places on his body.

His opponent, while in much better condition than himself, still had his own wounds to show from the battle. A gaping, bleeding hole in his left thigh which caused him to walk with a noticeable limp, a bruised, bloodied eye that had swollen up so bad that he could no longer see out of it, and various other nicks and scrapes. His breathing was obviously labored as he limped toward Konohamaru with both fists clenched.

"I'll give you this, kid," Ishimaru grumbled, "You sure as hell don't know when to quit. It's a shame the fruit who trained you couldn't teach you anything else."

"Don't…insult…Naruto…niisan." Konohamaru said through labored breaths.

"Niisan?" Ishimaru questioned mockingly, "Sounds like you've got a crush on this fruit. I'll probably kick his ass after I'm done with you."

Konohamaru tired to laugh but his burning lungs wouldn't permit it. _Little does this fool know, he's already had his ass handed to him by Naruto-niisan._

"Yeah, that's right, just stand there with that goofy smile on your face and that defiant look in your eyes," Ishimaru mocked, "Because for about the past minute or so you've been laying right in my trap."

Konohamaru's goofy smile and defiant look melted into a façade of confusion. "…what…?" He managed weakly.

"I'll give you a hint, dumbass," Ishimaru said whilst forming a seal, "It's right below you."

Konohamaru looked down foolishly and saw the strange markings on the ground he stood on. Had Konoharmu paid more attention during academy classes, he would have recognized the markings on the ground as those that mark an explosion tag.

"This is it!" Ishimaru shouted, "_DOTON: TSUCHI BAKUHATSU NO JUTSU!"_

The ground underneath Konohamaru's very feet exploded violently. His body was shot into the air like a rag doll, twisting and tumbling to the whim of gravity before landing at the feet of his opponent with a sickening thud. Ishimaru regarded the wrecked body of his opponent with a look of contempt.

A chorus of 'Oh's' swept through the audience, except for the side where the majority of the Iwa ninja sat. Up in the stands, Sakura dropped to her seat with a horrified look on her face. She was thankful Naruto wasn't here to see because if he was she wouldn't be able to stop the rampage that would ensue, not that she would actually want to.

Back on the battle ground, Ishimaru strutted away from the downed body as the proctor raised his hand to declare the match.

!-!-!-!-!

"I don't see what the big deal is, he still gave a speech about 'youth power' and all that crap."

"You have obviously lost your youth, Kakashi, because-"

An earth shattering boom rocked the temple and ended Gai's bickering as Raihanma escaped from his earthen tomb with a explosion of electricity. Spare bits of stone sprayed the two jounin as their enemy took his stand.

"I've heard enough of you two jokesters!" Raihanma shouted. He raised his mighty hammer high above his head and brought it down with a throaty yell. An arc of lightening shot from the hammer and cut through the air. The two jounin jumped in opposite directions and barely dodged. They both performed synchronized flips in the air and landed on one knee, they both reached into their weapons pouch and pulled out a hand full of projectiles. They launched their attack simultaneously.

"CHILD'S PLAY!" Raihanma roared. Tiny blots of electricity shot out of his body and stopped the weapons in their flight.

"Gai! NOW!" Kakashi shouted.

With nary a nod in confirmation Gai shot forward with imperceptible speed. The image of Gai blinked into existence in front of Raihanma with his fist raised and ready to strike. Raihanma wasn't fast enough to dodge but he did make small alterations to his stance that would help him weather the blow.

But the hit never landed.

Gai blinked out of existence and reappeared behind Raihanma.

Raihanma's eyes went wide. _Such speed!_

The Akatsuki member twisted his body and attempted to strike Gai with his hammer but it wasn't Gai he had to worry about as Kakashi dove feet first into his chest and sent him flying backwards. He flew for a few seconds before hitting the ground and skidding to a painful stop.

"OY YO! NOT FINISHED YET!" The sound came from above him as Gai jumped in the air. Gai spun in a dizzying feat of somersaults as he descended through the air. At the last second, he shot his leg out and the spinning of his body carried the powerful limb into Raihanma's chest with a devastating force. _"KONOHA GOUFUU!"_

Raihanma's head and arms jerked forward as his torso was driven further into the pure stone beneath him. Blood flew out his mouth in a stream and on gravity's whim fell back into his immaculate face.

"NOT YET!" Gai crowed. He grabbed Raihanma by the shoulder and threw the much larger man through the air. The familiar sensation of flying through the air was cut short as Kakashi appeared beneath the enemy on all fours and delivered a kick that sent him flying for the roof. His skyward flight was also cut short as Gai appeared behind him, mimicking his flight in the _Konoha Kage Byou_.

The green beast wrapped his arms around Raihanma in a deathly bear hug and directed their flight back towards the ground, _"OMOTE RENGE!" _In his signature move, Gai suplexed Raihanma into the ground headfirst and jumped away from the technique at the last second and landed next to Kakashi to study his handiwork. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees and panted. Even after all his years of training the technique still took a toll on his body.

"Do…you think…it worked?" He asked his youthful rival.

Kakashi shook his head, "It's doubtful."

Movement in the crater that had resulted from Gai's attack confirmed his suspicion.

"It was a good strategy," Raihanma said as he pushed himself to his feet, still holding his hammer. "A blitzkrieg if I'm not mistaken. Attacking me as hard and as fast as you could in one quick burst in hopes that you would be able to keep me off my feet and gravely injure me. Nice try, but such an effort is juvenile to the Kujitogu warrior."

"Heh, I guess the legends were true then." Kakashi muttered.

"Yes," Raihanma said, stroking his hammer lovingly, "The Kujitogu was hand crafted by the Shodai Raikage, intended to be the worlds most powerful weapon, he planned to use it to take control of the entire continent."

"But," Kakashi continued on, having heard this story many times before. "His brother, a more sensible man, crafted an even more powerful weapon, a spear, which he used to overthrow the Shodai and take his place as the Nidaime."

Raihanma spit on the ground at the story's conclusion. "Unfortunately for you, the spear, Ichihyoro, has been lost to time. That means you stand no chance against my Kujitogu!"

"A weapon is only as good as its user." Said Gai, "And you are a pitifully excuse of a ninja."

Raihanma's eye went wild, "You dare insult me! You dare to think you can stop me! I'll kill you both! Then I'll take this scroll and learn the secrets of the Raijuu! It's power will be mine, then I'll be truly unstoppable! With it and the Kujitogu, I'll live to see the fulfillment of the Shodai Raikage's dream!" With each exclamation more and more electrical power surged from Raihanma's war hammer and spread through his body.

"That's your plan then? Take the demon as your own and use it to take over the world?" Kakashi let out a chuckle, "And here I thought you Akatsuki guys were something new." A dark look passed over his face as he regarded Raihanma with a glare, "I've met dozens of ninja who had dreams of becoming the most powerful and taking over the world…I killed them all."

Raihanma's elegant face twisted into a snarl, "Don't you dare insult me or my Organization! We are something you can't even begin to understand! We will turn this world into what it was always meant to be! A land of perpetual war! A land where warriors thrive and the weak perish!"

"Hmph, a bunch of misfits banding together and forming their own secret organization to change the world?" Kakashi questioned venomously, "Sounds more like the deluded dream of a child than a serious threat. I'm no psychologist, but it seems to me like you're using Akatsuki as a replacement for your father. From what I understand, he always loved your brother more than you…That's why _he _became Raikage and not you."

Raihanma's entire body glowed like a beacon as he drew more and more power from the Kujitogu. His entire body shook in anger, spittle dripped from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were wide and bloodshot. "You….You….You…!"

Kakashi simply nodded, "Me."

"Kakashi-kun, thank you for buying me some time, but there is no longer any needed for you to goad our enemy," Gai fully stood up and stretched his muscles. "I have recovered from the Lotus in record time!" He capped this statement off with a big smile and a thumbs up.

Raihanma's eyes looked ready to bug out of his skull. "You bastards! Take this!" He swung his hammer with a yell.

"Gai! Go!" Kakashi ordered.

Both jounin split up and allowed the steak of lightening to cut through the area where their bodies had previously been.

Gai charged Raihanma first as a blur of green and noise. Just as Raihanma prepared to counter the attack, Gai flipped over his head and landed in a crouch revealing Kakashi in his place. Both Jounin prepared an attack, Kakashi from the front, Gai from the back, and Raihanma wasn't fast enough to block either. His body was crushed between he fist of both jounin, and he let out a strangled gasp.

Raihanma's pain only lasted a second, though, as the built up electrical energy in his body exploded outward in a circular wave and repelled both Jounin and sent them flying to opposite sides of the temple where they each crashed into a stone wall.

Kakashi coughed and squirmed as the vestiges of the electricity ran through his body. His hair stood spikier than before and the tips were singed and smoking. A large shadow fell over him and he looked up to see Raihanma descending on him with his hammer raised. Kakashi's hand flew into an imperceptible seal series: _"Doton: Tsuchi no Tate no Jutsu!" _The Earth around his downed body rose up around him to form a protective dome just as Raihanma finished his swing.

Kakashi let out a sigh, _Just in time._

Unfortunately, the shield didn't hold for long. With Raihanma's second swing the dome of earth collapsed and Kakashi had to roll away to avoid being squished. However, Kakashi's movement was still limited by the electrical shock and he wasn't able to roll away fast enough. Raihanma's hammer caught his right arm under it's mighty weight and crushed it without remorse.

A blood curdling scream wrenched itself from Kakashi's throat and exploded through his masked mouth as not only was his arm crushed, his entire body was racked by uncountable volts of electricity.

"_KONOHA SENPUU!"_

Gai's kick connected with Raihanma's midsection and propelled the large man into a wall. "Kakashi-Kun!" Gai cried worriedly. He pulled his rival off the ground and helped him stand. The seasoned jounin tried his best not to wince at his friend's wound. Kakashi's arm was mangled. Broken bones poked out of his skin at odd angles. Blood soaked through the charred remains of his black jumpsuit and fell to the ground. "Are you all right, Kakashi?"

"No." Kakashi answered truthfully. "Gai, we have to end this fight fast. That electricity of his is the strongest I've ever seen and he seems to have an infinite supply of it. It limits us in hand-to-hand combat, and I'm sure it would be effective at stopping any ninjutsu I could throw at it."

"An absolute defense!" Gai cursed.

"Not quite. At this rate, we have four options. One is genjutsu, another is my Mangekyou Sharingan, or you could try opening up the gates. All three of those would either take too much time or use up too much chakra."

"So, what are we left with?"

"M-"

"Heh, heh, heh, You see it now, don't you?" Raihanma questioned sadistically as he pulled himself from his hole in the wall. More and more electricity surged from the Kujitogu and spread through his body, "With Kujitogu at my side, I can't be beat. You won't be able to stop my ambition! I'll kill you both and learn the secrets of the Raijuu from the scroll!"

Kakashi managed to muster up a weak snarl. "Raijuu, eh?" He questioned. The name caused a flashback to run through his brain like a runaway train. A frozen tundra marred with blood, orange hair and red cheek markings begging him to leave her behind. Kakashi shook his head to rid his pain addled brain of the memories. "If you're so interested in taking that power for yourself, then I'll show you the power that killed the last Raijuu Jinchuriki!"

Raihanma scoffed and raised his hammer. "Like I would believe that. This is the end for you two."

"Gai," Kakashi said urgently, "Give me your hand and form seals with me."

Gai nodded and gave Kakashi his right hand which Kakashi grasped with his left.

"Ox."

Their hands smoothly slid into the seal.

"Rabbit."

Raihanma built up more energy in his war hammer with a maniacal grin.

"Monkey."

Raihanma swung his hammer and let loose a streak of lightening of epic proportions.

Kakashi charged at it head on. His broken right arm dangled behind him uselessly, but his left arm was held out in front of him; chakra visibly built up in his palm but it was completely dwarfed by the gargantuan size of Raihanma's lightening strike.

But Kakashi wasn't afraid.

For the second time in his life, he cut through lightening, and plunged his hand into the heart of a monster.

"_RAIKIRI!"_

!-!-!-!-!

Itachi loomed over the beaten, bloodied body of Sarutobi Asuma and looked down upon him with a dead pan face. The mass murderer squatted down briefly to pick up Asuma's discarded knuckle knife. He reached over and held to weapon to its owner's throat.

Asuma did his best to inch away from his deadly knife, but there was only so much he could do in such an injured state.

Just as Itachi was about to drag the knife along Asuma's throat, he sensed something. His hand faltered as he looked to up, up into the mountains surrounding the village.

With a nearly inaudible sigh, Itachi dropped the knife and stood up. He formed a simple seal and the wind around him built up and surrounded him in a vortex, teleporting him away.

Maybe Asuma was just hearing things, but he could have sworn he heard the Uchiha mutter, "How troublesome," before he disappeared.

!-!-!-!-!

The proctor opened his mouth to declare the match over.

Ishimaru swaggered away from Konohamaru's downed body with his head held high. He raised his hand to the Iwa nin in the audience to give them a wave.

And then Konohamaru's body exploded into a cloud of smoke.

The proctor stumbled back in surprise, and a gasp ran through the audience. A certain pink haired kunoichi could be heard shouting "My god, he created another Naruto!".

Ishimaru turned around on his heel with a surprised look on his face.

"Hey, bastard!" A shout came from his right side, his blind side. He swiveled around to face the shouter, but it was too late. Konohamaru's fist was already connecting with his nose and propelling him backwards with surprising strength.

"Don't…Don't underestimate me…bas…basta-" Before he could even finish his insult, Konohamaru fainted. The crowd was stunned into silence as both contestants were down.

There was a tense second were nothing happened.

Sakura chewed her fingernails.

Ebisu-sensei dropped his newly acquired cop of Icha-Icha Tactics.

Another tense second.

Ishimaru shifted. Ishimaru pushed himself to his knees. Ishimaru stood up. "That bastard…" he cursed, "All that time… he could make bunshin…!"

The exam proctor waited a few seconds to see if Konohamaru had any more tricks up his sleeve. The genin remained motionless on the ground. "The winner of the match: Setsudanki Ishimaru!"

!-!-!-!-!

"Sakura!"

Sakura raised her head from its buried position in her hands. "Kurenai-sensei? What is it?"

"I need you to come with me." She turned to Neji, Temari and Kankurou, "You three also." Kurenai did her best to ignore the inquisitive eyes of her teammates, and the analyzing ones of Shikamaru. The boy was smart, just as Asuma repeatedly told her. He knew something was wrong.

"What is it, Kurenai-san?" Sakura asked.

"Just come with me." Kurenai urged. She led Sakura and the three jounin to the broom closet where she had left Naruto.

"What the hell is Naruto doing in a broom closet?" Sakura demanded angrily.

"I don't have time to explain, Sakura." Kurenai informed her, "Just know that he is hurt and you have to help him. You three," She addressed Neji, Temari and Kankurou, "Come with me." The three jounin saw the seriousness in her red eyes and decided not to ask questions. They left Sakura alone with a knocked out Naruto in a broom closet and followed Kurenai.

When they got outside of the stadium walls all they found was a badly beaten Asuma.

"Asuma!" Kurenai cried. She rushed to him and helped him sit up, "What happened?,!"

"I think…" Asuma rasped. He coughed up some blood and continued, "I think…we just won."

**!-!-!-!-!**

_Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu - Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique_

_Fuuton: Kaze Dangan no Jutsu - Wind Style: Wind Bullet Technique_

_DOTON: TSUCHI BAKUHATSU NO JUTSU - Earth Style: Earth Explosion Technique_

_KONOHA GOUFUU - Leaf Tornado_

_Doton: Tsuchi no Tate no Jutsu - Earth Style: Earth Shield Technique_


	29. Report!

...I didn't get any reviews for the last chapter, and only a small amount of hits. I'm not happy about that, but I probably deserve it for not updating for so long. Well, like I said in the last chapter, my inspiration is back and updates will be coming much quicker now.

* * *

Sakura's hands glowed green as they hovered over Naruto's abdomen. A quick diagnostic technique had told her that he had suffered massive blunt force trauma to his mid-section which had damaged his vital organs. His own healing system had taken care of the worst of the damage already and now her green glowing hands were finishing the job. "Just who the hell did this to you, Naruto?" She muttered to herself. Her voice was strained and her brow was cinched in concentration. A few droplets of sweat running down her face was the evidence of her efforts.

"That bastard…Itachi."

Sakura nearly jumped away from the blond. "Naruto! You're awake?"

Naruto pushed her green glowing hands away from his stomach and sat up with a grunt. "Yeah." He answered gruffly, "How long have I been out?"

"I don't know. Kurenai-san lead me to you a couple of minutes ago and took off without an explanation." Sakura informed him. There were a few seconds of silence as Naruto rubbed his abdominal muscles to test their condition. Sakura watched him curiously, then her mind was rocked by the realization. "Did you say Itachi!,?" She shouted, her eyes wide with surprise and a bit of fear as she put her hand on her mouth to quiet her exclamation.

"Yeah," Naruto said. He stood up and performed a quick bout of stretches, reaching down to his toes and then up to the ceiling. "He attacked me while I was in the bathroom. I only remember him hitting me twice, but I guess that was enough."

Sakura was stunned with the level of calm Naruto was showing, "Naruto, if Itachi is here we have to tell Tsunade-sama as soon as possible." She told him urgently, her tone containing a bit of disappointment that he hadn't already done this.

"She already knows. Otherwise she wouldn't have sent Kurenai and Asuma to bail me out." Naruto said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

The memory of Kakashi dropping in on her and her comrades flashed through Sakura's mind, the excitement of the Chuunin exams had caused her to forget already. "Right, and Kakashi-sensei knows also." She paused and thought for a moment, "But he didn't help you?"

Naruto shook his head, "He must have went to take out Itachi's partner." He reasoned, "Those Akatsuki guys travel in pairs, you know?"

"So, what do we do then?" Sakura asked. All bases had been covered. The Hokage knew of the threat and as ninja of Konoha-whether in a foreign country or not-it was their job to neutralize it. Sakura knew this, of course, but the circumstances were different this time.

For his part, Naruto didn't give a damn about what the circumstances warranted. His thoughts were focused on the Uchiha who had managed to disable him with two simple kicks despite the demon chakra running through his system. A deep part of Naruto's mind was scared by that fact, but his fear was overrun by his usual gung-ho attitude. "We got kick that Uchiha bastard's ass!"

!-!-!-!-!

Raihanma's face was frozen in a state of shock. His eyes were wide, but they lacked the maniacal glimmer of before. Now instead of angry spittle dripping from the corner of his mouth there was blood. His hand went limp and the powerful war hammer dropped from his possession with a clang.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Raihanma looked down to his chest and saw the gaping red hole there. Going through that hole was an arm, an arm connected to the body of the masked and bloody Copy Cat ninja, Hatake Kakashi. Raihanma's mouth worked up and down as he tried his best to say something, anything. The best he managed was a sickening gargle of blood as Kakashi brutally ripped his hand away, causing more blood and gore to expel from the wound.

Free from Kakashi's hand, Raihanma took one weak, wobbly step back. He desperately clutched at his chest and tried to keep his precious life fluid from spilling out anymore. He tried to take another step backwards, anything to get away from Kakashi lest he be struck again, but his legs could no longer hold his gigantic weight and he fell backwards to the harsh stone of the temple floor.

Kakashi watched as Raihanma's breathing gradually came to a halt, and he let out a sigh. Not out of frustration, or anger, or disappointment, but out of relief. He reached up and pulled his forehead protector down, covering his red Sharingan and officially ending the battle..

"What should we do with the body?" Questioned Gai as he stepped behind Kakashi.

"We'll let their ANBU handle it." Kakashi muttered, trying his best to not let the deep tiredness he was feeling seep into his voice.

"And your arm?" Gai asked with a glace towards the dangling, broken limb.

"I'll be able to manage long enough for us to get back and report to Hokage-sama." Kakashi said, not at all looking forward to the trip back to the village.

Gai gripped Kakashi by his good arm. The Copy Cat ninja turned back to his 'rival' and was surprised by the serious look on his face. His surprise quickly turned sour as the bowl-cut jounin opened his mouth and spoke, "YOSH! And to make sure you make it back to the village I, the great and beautiful Gai, shall carry you on my back!"

Kakashi's eye went wide, "What? NO!" But it was too late. Somehow he was already piggybacking on Gai's back. All he could do was sigh and mutter, "Not again…" As the dark haired jounin took off.

!-!-!-!-!

"So…he just left?" Tsunade asked as her administrative hands went to work on the injured Asuma.

"Yeah." Asuma answered, his tone indicating that it wasn't the first time he had to answer the question. "Didn't even have the balls to finish off the job."

"Asuma!" Kurenai scolded.

Asuma shrugged, which lead to a painful wince from him and a disapproving look from the Hokage that was treating his wounds, "Just sayin'."

"He didn't say anything before he left?" Tsunade questioned her underling. Her hands roamed across his chest in an almost careless way, it was obviously no obstacle for her to concentrate on her patient and badger him at the same time.

Asuma shook his head, which lead to another painful wince, "I don't know if you've meet the guy, Hokage-sama, but he isn't exactly the talkative type."

"You can say that again," Agreed Naruto, who sat on a bed opposite to Asuma, "I don't know how he and Sasuke are related. Sasuke loved to run his mouth during a fight."

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded. She raised a threatening fist to the boy and that was enough for him to duck his head warily.

"Just sayin'." He muttered.

The green glow of Tsunade's hands dissipated as she declared: "You're done, Asuma."

"What? I don't get the full treatment? I still fell like I've been trampled by a runaway ox." Asuma protested, still laying in the infirmary bed.

"Kakashi and Gai should be back soon," Tsunade said. She pulled out a chair and took a seat next to his bed. "I'm sure they'll need my medical help too."

"How are you sure they'll be back soon, Shishou?" Sakura asked.

"Itachi wouldn't leave without his partner, so I'm assuming that Gai and Kakashi's fight is over." Tsunade said.

"Do you think they've killed the other Akatsuki member, or do you think he's killed them?" Questioned Neji from his corner of the room.

Tsunade didn't answer and the silence she caused made the tension in the room go up tenfold. "…I'm sure they'll be alright," Sakura said mostly to herself.

As if on cue there was a pounding knock on the infirmary door. Tsunade got up from her seat and walked to the door with a small scowl set in place. "Is there anything that man can do that isn't loud and obnoxious?" She hissed under her breath.

Sure enough, as she opened the door there stood Maito Gai with his fist poised to deliver another round on knocking to the door. The Hokage was ready to yell at her jounin for knocking so damn loud, when she saw the peculiar predicament they were in. That predicament being Hatake Kakashi riding on Gai's back.

In the infirmary, both Naruto and Sakura had similar looks of slack jawed, wide eyed disgust on their face. Their thoughts were also very similar: _OH MY GOD! They're doing it again!_

Neji just let out a disappointed sigh on the two men's behalf. Asuma and Kurenai, on the other hand, seemed very use to this sight and didn't give their two comrades a second glance.

Tsunade's eyes shrank into tiny slits and she pursed her lips, "Just what the hell…are you guys doing?" She muttered quietly, dangerously.

"This was all his idea." Kakashi said in something that sounded like a mixture of a groan and a moan.

"I had to help my injured comrade!" Gai bellowed, "Had I not, he might not have made it back."

For the first time, Tsunade caught sight of Kakashi's mangled arm. "Hmm, that's a bad break. Set him down on the bed over there." She indicated with a point. She continued on to say in that same quiet and dangerous tone, "And never…EVER let me see the two of you doing this again."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Gai intoned like a scorned child.

"Now," Tsunade continued while performing a diagnostic technique on Kakashi's arm, "Report the situation to me!"

!-!-!-!-!

"Itachi…You come back without the Kyuubi, without the Rokubi, and without your partner. Explain yourself."

"The mission was a failure."

"…How so?"

"Raihanma-san was bested by Hatake Kakashi and Maito Gai. The mission was a failure."

"What about the Kyuubi, surely you still could've captured him!"

"…The time is not right for the Kyuubi child. I merely attacked him to cause a distraction for Raihanma-san. I never truly intended to capture him. Once I sensed the ending of Raihanma-san's life, there was no longer a need for me to stay in Hidden Cloud."

"What do you mean, 'The time is not right for the Kyuubi child'? We waited the appropriate amount of time for his seal to mature. What further need have we to wait?"

"He has yet to fulfill his goal in life."

"What?"

"As it is now, he still has a purpose to serve in this universe, thusly we can't acquire him."

"Stop speaking in riddles, Itachi, what is his purpose?"

"The equation must be _balanced_. Haven must meet Earth."

"…That was another riddle…"

!-!-!-!-!

With the Akatsuki ordeal wrapped up in Hidden Cloud, the Chuunin exams continued on. Those who were not apart of the repelling of the missing nins were not told about situation, although many of them began to come up with their own theories of why the majority of the jounin left inexplicably. Particularly one lazy ninja known as Nara Shikamaru had a pretty accurate idea of what had unfolded, but he was quoted as saying, "_I don't really care what was going on. Trying to find out more would be too troublesome."  
_

Unfortunately for the Leaf Village, only one of their genin survived the first round, Hyuuga Hanabi, and even she was eliminated by Setsudanki Ishimaru in the semi-final round. It would be Ishimaru who won the final match, leaving the Hidden Rock Village quite smug in its victory.

After the completion of the exams, the various convoy's of foreign ninja left Hidden Cloud, and were quite glad to do so.

!-!-!-!-!

The night was dark, the only light cast being that of the crescent moon in the sky. Naruto had no idea what time it was as he stumbled through a small thicket of trees. He did know that it was definitely late, since he was the only one awake. The Convoy of Leaf and Sand ninja heading back to their respective villages had stopped for the night to rest. For Naruto, rest didn't come easy. Only a few hours into his uneasy sleep he was awoken with the strong urge to take a piss. It hadn't taken him long to detach himself from camp and find a nice, secluded tree to relieve himself on, but after he had done his business he noticed a curious pinprick of light in the near distance. All ready awake, Naruto decided to pursue the foreign light source and see just what the hell it was.

Now, he found himself getting ever closer to the light source, which from his new vantage point was reveled to be a lamp. He trudged closer through the sparse underbrush and approached the lamp and the woman who sat in its light.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto questioned in a lazy slur, he still wasn't fully awake.

The woman turned around and showed off a pale, thin face upon which a pair of circular glasses were set. "Oh, hello there, Naruto-kun." She greeted in a friendly tone, completely throwing the tired Naruto off his guard.

"…Do I know you?" He asked with a curious tilt of his head.

The woman giggled-although Naruto took note that it was nothing like the very cute, girly giggle he was used to hearing from Sakura-and stood up with her hand held out. "No." She answered, "We haven't been formally introduced, but I still know of you."

Naruto regarded her outstretched arm warily, "So…who the hell are you?" He repeated.

The woman giggled again, and again it was very dry and almost humorless, "My name is Joshu," She told him, "I'm the apprentice to Ibiki-san. I came here to investigate the suspect in the Tsuchikage's murder."

Naruto titled his head again, "And…who the hell is Ibiki."

The woman's ever present smile faltered for a moment before returning, "You know, Morino Ibiki?" Naruto gave her a blank stare, "You know, the big guy-" She stretched her arms out to showcase Ibiki's girth, "-With scars all on his head?"

A small light of recognition flared in Naruto's blue eyes, "Oh, that guy!" He said, "The asshole Chuunin Examiner."

Joshu deadpanned, "Um…sure…"

"Right," Continued Naruto, "So…what the hell are you doing out here?"

Joshu chuckled again, dry and humorless, then answered, "I was writing a letter and I needed privacy," She informed him.

"Oh…alright." Naruto muttered, it sounded like a good enough answer to him, "Guess I'll see you later." He gave her a small wave and made to depart back to camp. Her voice stopped him.

"Please wait, Naruto-kun, It's really dark out here, would you mind if I walk back with you?" She begged.

Naruto shrugged, "Sure. Whatever. Just hurry the hell up. I want to go back to sleep."

Joshu let out that same giggle that was really starting to grate on Naruto's tired nerves. She scooped up a few pieces of paper and stuffed them in her pocket, then she picked up her lamp and followed after Naruto.

As they walked back to camp, Joshu entertained herself by talking Naruto's ears off. She told him about her time in the academy and why she decided to become an interrogator. Naruto really didn't care, he was starting to wonder why he had gotten out of bed in the first place. When he remembered it was to pee, he wondered why he didn't just hold it in until morning. It didn't matter now, though, his tent was getting closer and closer and eventually he'd be able to get back to sleep without listening to the woman talk.

"Thank you for escorting me, Naruto-kun." Joshu said as they arrived back at camp.

"Sure. Whatever." Naruto muttered. He left her alone and entered his tent without a good bye. Joshu smirked as she watched him leave. She went back to her own tent, and when she was safely inside and away from peeping eyes, she took out the two letters she had been working on. They were almost finished, all they needed was the name to the person they were addressed to. She took out a pen and wrote a different name on each letter. She wrote in a bold style and ended each name with a flourish, almost like she was daring anyone to read the names inscribed on the letters.

The name on the first letter read:

'_Danzou-sama'_

And the name on the second letter read:

'_Orochimaru-sama'_


	30. Encounter!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed or added this story to thier alerts, favorites or c2's.

* * *

Naruto stretched his arms to the clear blue sky and arced his back with a satisfying pop. A grateful smile stretched across his face as the sun light danced around his eyes. "Ahh…What a nostalgic sight." He sighed. Just ahead was the ever so familiar sight of his home village, looking just the same as he had left it.

"There's nothing to be nostalgic about," Sakura remarked as she walked alongside him, "We haven't been gone that long." Despite her words, she too was obviously happy to be home as she regarded her home with a smile similar to her companion's.

"Just glad to be home," Naruto muttered, scratching behind his ears, "At least the sun shines here, not like that damn Cloud village." Naruto continued to grouse and mutter under his breath about the failings of Hidden Could village to which Sakura replied with only a shake of the head.

"Consider yourself lucky," Came a stoic interruption of Naruto's complaints, "My ninja and I still have quite a way to go before reaching our home." Naruto and Sakura turned to see Gaara approaching them from behind.

"Oh yeah," Naruto said in an indifferent tone, turning back forward and crossing his hands behind his head in a nonchalant fashion. "That sucks. So what's up, Kazekage_-sama_?" He pronounced the former jinchuriki's honorific in a slow mocking tone with a teasing smile on his face.

Gaara merely chuckled at Naruto's attitude, "I'm actually looking for Kakashi-san." He continued on to say as surreptitiously as possible. "He never held up his end of our…" He paused and gave Sakura a wary look before continuing, "…_business deal_." If he had eyebrows, the Kazekage would have waggled them suggestively at that point.

Naruto immediately understood, and nodded with a sneaky smile. Sakura, however, was very confused and made this known to Naruto. "What is he talking about, Naruto?" She questioned with a curious tilt of her head.

The smile fell off of Naruto's face quickly, "Uh…it's nothing to be concerned about, Sakura-chan." He answered quickly with a placating wave of his hands. "Just…guy stuff, you know?"

Naruto's façade of innocence instantly triggered alarms in Sakura's head. Naruto was _never _innocent. She stalked toward the boy with a menacing glare marring her pretty features. Both of her hands clenched into fists as she demanded, "What the hell is going on, Naruto!?"

Gaara watched the spectacle with a ghost of a smile on his face. "It's nothing, Sakura-san." He said unconvincingly.

Sakura ignored the Kazekage, "Naruto…" She hissed.

"A bet!" Naruto blurted out. He held his hands in front of his face to protect himself from the bludgeoning that was soon to come. Instead of beating Naruto, Sakura took the time to be confused again.

"A bet?" She questioned, thinking she had gotten angry at Naruto for no reason, "What kind of bet?"

Gaara decided to save Naruto by answering the question for him. "Kankurou and myself started the bet." He said, not at all fearing the pink haired girl, "We wagered on how long it would take for Shikamaru-san and Temari to start…" He paused, trying to think of the best word, "…make out." Satisfied with his word choice he went on, "When Kakashi-san and Naruto heard about the bet, they joined in. Since then, there have been others, but so far only Kakashi-san has welched on his bet."

Sakura's jaw dropped in shock and Naruto cowered away from her and her inevitable explosion of pink fury. The explosion never came, and Naruto slowly unclenched his eyes to see that Sakura looked much more worried than she did angry. Her eyes were wide and she chewed on her nails in nervous habit.

"S-s-sakura-chan?" Naruto questioned, "What's wrong?"

Sakura further surprised him by grabbing the Kazekage by the collar of his robes and shaking him roughly, "Has the Hokage found out about his bet yet?" She questioned urgently, desperately.

Gaara was shocked by the immediate contact. It was times like this he wished he still had the automatic protection of his jinchuriki. "…What?"

"The Hokage!" Sakura nearly shouted in his face, "Has the Hokage found out about the bet?!"

Gaara slowly shook his head. He didn't want to make any sudden movements in fear of setting her off. "No." He answered just as slowly. Sakura let him go and he breathed a sigh of relief. The sound was echoed by Sakura.

"Good." She said, her body visibly relaxing.

Naruto had watched all of this with a mix of amusement and fear. He didn't understand what was going on, and he wasn't sure he wanted to, but he still had to ask. "Um…Sakura-chan? What the hell was that?"

"Yeah…" Gaara muttered, straightening out his robes and warily watching the pink haired kunoichi.

Sakura opened her mouth to answer but stopped as a pounding sound interrupted her. Sakura's eyes went wide again as the pounding sound continued and grew louder and louder. All three ninja turned around and saw a figure blurring towards them, kicking up a could of dust as it did so. Other ninja in the convoy were tossed to the side as the blurring figure passed them by. "Oh no…" Sakura muttered as the figure got closer and closer.

Naruto pulled out a kunai and got prepared to face the incoming threat. Gaara raised his hands, ready to from any seal necessary.

The figure got closer and closer. It skidded to a stop and the Godaime Hokage stood before the three. Her tremendous chest heaved as he gasped for breath. She regarded the three young ninja before her with a maniacal look in her eyes. "…Did someone say bet?"

!-!-!-!-!

After Sakura calmed the Hokage down and talked her out of betting the entire village on Shikamaru and Temari's wedding date, there was only a short walk left to the gates of Konoha. There the Suna nin separated themselves from the Konoha nin and prepared to make the final leg of their journey. A large group of people not so stealthily gathered around a particular couple of ninja who were parting ways. Neither Temari nor Shikamaru paid much attention to the crowd the had gathered as they made their good byes.

The very obvious crowd, mostly consisting of young men, watched on with high anticipation. Kiba was especially eager, with his fist held out and clenched in front of him as he silently rooted Shikamaru on.

"See ya." Temari said with a limp wave.

"Uhn." Shikamaru grunted.

The two parted ways.

A groan of epic proportions ripped through crowed of on lookers. With disappointment hanging heavily over their shoulders, they all pulled out their wallets and drearily marched over to the expectant Gaara and Kankurou.

"Shouldn't you be over there, Naruto?" Sakura questioned, "You were apart of that stupid bet, weren't you?"

"Pfft. Screw that!" Naruto said with an unconcerned wave of his hand, "No way I'm giving up 50 ryou cause those two don't want to make out."

Sakura shook her head in disappointment, "Boys are so stupid. What makes you think they like each other anyways?"

"Well, I mean, look," Naruto stuttered, desperately trying to defend his gender, "They hang out all the time, and stuff."

"So? You and I are together a lot, that doesn't mean were going to start kissing anytime soon, right?" Sakura asked with a smile, as if the answer was obvious to anyone with half a brain.

Naruto remained quiet and cast his eyes to the ground, "…"

"Right?" Sakura repeated sternly.

Naruto began chuckling nervously, "Of course…why would we ever want to do that?"

Sakura eyed the blond in narrow eyed suspicion. "…Naruto?"

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto interjected loudly, "Now that we're back, let's go get some ramen!"

Sakura was quiet as Naruto watched her hopefully and waited for her answer. "…Okay." She muttered, "But you better be paying!"

!-!-!-!-!

After an uneventful ramen dinner with Sakura (which she had refused to call a date) Naruto found himself walking home by himself. He was in a good mood, despite the fact that just an hour early Sakura had just as much told him that she had no interest in ever kissing him. It didn't bother him any, and she had still agreed to eat ramen with him, so it was all good in his mind.

He wasn't particularly paying attention to where he was going as he was so used to traversing the streets that he had no need to. So, it shouldn't be a big surprise that he bumped into another person just as they were exiting a building. Naruto was unperturbed by the collision, but the other person was sent sprawling to the ground

With a surprised look on his face, Naruto looked down to see the old person he had ran into. The man had bandages covering the right side of his face and all he had left of his right arm was a useless stump. His frail body was covered in black on white robes.

"Sorry old man," Naruto apologized with an extended hand to help the old man up. His hand was grasped harshly around the wrist by a black gloved hand that didn't belong to the old man. Naruto followed the hand up and saw it belonged to an ANBU member. The Wolf mask covering the elite ninja's face did little to hide his contempt for Naruto.

"You will not touch Danzou-sama" Despite the waves of killer intent Naruto was feeling from the ANBU, the voice came out very pleasant.

Naruto was momentarily confused before the name clicked in his head. "Danzou?!" He questioned. He turned back to the old man who was already being helped to his feet by another ANBU (this one wearing a Peacock mask) Naruto hadn't seen before. Just like his comrade, the ANBU helping Danzou up was radiating hate towards Naruto. _What's with these guys? _Naruto questioned himself, _What the hell did I ever do to them?!_

"Yes, kid, I am Danzou." The old man spoke as the second ANBU handed him his walking stick. The first ANBU still held a death grip on Naruto's wrist. Danzou's visible eye was narrowed into a glare, a glare Naruto had seen far too often. The glare that every villager of Konoha had given him at least once in his life. The glare that branded him as a monster.

Naruto's eyes tinted red with anger. The words of Jiraiya seeped into his mind, _"He thinks that, as the container of Kyuubi, you are to be nothing but a weapon to use in war." _It had been years since Naruto had seen that glare, and Danzou was a fool to think he was just going to stand there and take it now. "Hey…You bastard!" Naruto seethed, "Why the hell are you looking at me like that!?"

The only answer Danzou provided was a curl of his upper lip into a deep sneer.

And that was all the answer Naruto needed to set him off.

With a throaty yell the he broke the Wolf-masked ANBU's grip on his wrist and charged forward with a fist raised.

Danzou regarded the charge in mild curiosity. All he did was step back as his Peacock-masked guard stepped forward and drew his sword. The Peacock swung with a strike meant to decapitate Naruto, but as the steel of the blade slid into his neck his body disappeared into a puff of smoke.

"Damn it!" Peacock cursed, "Where-"

"There." Wolf told him calmly, pointing up to a nearby light pole where Naruto was crouched down. "I'll take care of this." Wolf-mask slammed his palms together in a seal. Vines ripped up from the ground below and chased after Naruto.

The blond ninja jumped out of reach of the wooden vines as they converged on his position. He flipped in mid air and pulled out a single shuriken. He threw it and formed a series of seals, _"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" _The shuriken multiplied in mid air and twenty different projectiles descended upon the two ANBU and Danzou.

Wolf-mask formed that same seal and three thick, wooden vines ripped through the earth and blocked the projectiles. With a wave of his hand, Wolf-mask directed one of the vines to lash out at Naruto as he fell through the air.

The blond Chuunin twisted his body to avoid the earthen aggressor, but he wasn't fast enough and the vine wrapped around his ankle and yanked him into the ground. The ground rumbled and cracked with the force of Naruto's body striking it. Before Naruto could even clear his head from the impact more vines leapt out of the earth, wrapped around his body and tethered him to the ground.

Peacock-mask stepped up to Naruto's downed body with his sword drawn. He placed the tip of the weapon at Naruto's throat. "Wretched filth!" He cursed.

"Sai!" Came a warning shout from Danzou and Wolf-mask, but it was too late-

"_TSUUGA!"_

_-_A twisting blur of claws and fangs plowed into Sai's chest. Wolf-mask made to run forward and help his comrade, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Perhaps you're new," Came the stoic voice of Aburame Shino, "But in the village of Konoha attacking one's peers is considered a high offense." Wolf-mask turned his head to glare through his mask's eyeholes at Shino. "I wouldn't move if I were you," Shino continued on, "Because just by allowing me to grab your shoulder I have already released enough kikai bugs to render you unconscious."

"He attacked us first," Wolf-mask spoke gently through his mask.

Shino looked to Naruto, who was being cut free by Inuzuka Kiba, and received a nod in confirmation. "Well then. My trust in Uzumaki Naruto tells me that he would not have attacked you without good reason."

"Yeah, bastards!" Kiba shouted.

"Well it better be a damn good reason." Came an unknown voice. Everyone turned to see a squad of ninja dressed in the uniform of Konoha's personal police unit. The speaker smirked grimly, "Cause if it's not, I'm going to have to arrest you kids for assaulting the leader of the Council and his entourage."

!-!-!-!-!

"Damn it, Naruto., if I knew you were fighting for such a stupid reason I wouldn't have helped!"

"Shut up."

"I, too, would have remained out of the fight had I known the invalid reason for which it was taking place."

"Shut up!"

"I mean, seriously, he 'looked at you funny? What kind of bullshit is that?"

"SHUT UP!" Naruto's shout echoed off of the concrete walls of the jail cell surrounding them. It was a small, cramped square room with just a bed and a toilet for furniture. The light in the ceiling buzzed and flickered in an annoying fashion that only heightened Naruto's bad mood. "You losers just don't understand." Naruto crossed his arms and his mouth twisted into a grimace.

"Would not the loser be the one who was fighting in a crowded street for illogical reasons?" Shino questioned.

Naruto glared at him, then switched his eyes over to Kiba, "What the hell did he just say?!"

"He said you're the loser for fighting for dumbass reasons." Kiba translated with a sneer and a spit in Naruto's general direction.

"Oh…" Naruto paused for a moment and scratched the back of his head. "Well….Well tell him he can kiss my ass."

"He said you can-"

"I heard him." Shino interrupted.

The cell went quiet.

The door opened and Kakashi was standing on the other side of it. "Yo." He greeted with a lazy wave.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto squealed. He charged at the jounin and nearly took him off his feet with a hug. "I couldn't stand being in here with these assholes any longer." Both Kiba and Shino traded annoyed looks.

"Umm, nice to see you too, Naruto." Kakashi said with an awkward pat of Naruto's blond head. He looked over his pupil's head at the other two ninja in the cell, "Kurenai sent me after you two also. She wants a full explanation tomorrow during the team meeting."

Kiba let up a disgruntled sigh as he stood up. "What a drag. My parents are going to kill me, then Kurenai-sensei is going to double kill me!"

!-!-!-!-!

"So…why did you do it, Naruto?" Kakashi asked. He had volunteered to walk Naruto back to his apartment once he had been released from jail. The walk had been quiet so far, but Kakashi had to ask the inevitable question.

"He looked at me funny." Naruto groused, expecting the same reaction he had gotten from everybody else that day. Instead, Kakashi asked,

"How so?"

"He looked at me like all the villagers used to look at me when I was a kid. He looked at me like I was a monster." Kakashi had nothing to say at Naruto's bitter announcement. "It's been so long since anyone has looked at me like that." Naruto continued, "I just couldn't take it…I'm not the weak little kid that I used to be. I won't let them treat me like trash anymore, Kakashi-sensei."

There was silence again, the only sound being the sound of their shoes on the pavement of the dark, empty street.

"I understand, Naruto." Kakashi informed his former student. Naruto was surprised by the genuine words the jounin expressed. Kakashi continued on in explanation, "When I was a child, my father did something that brought great shame to our family, and I remember the way the villagers used to look at me. They never called me a monster, but they said things just as bad about me and my family. Their looks drove me to be something terrible, and it took something even more terrible to stop me from being that thing."

Naruto's face scrunched up in confusion at Kakashi's vague story. For just a breif second, Kakashi's eye played a trick on him and Naruto's hair was black and his eyes were red. Shaking that image out of his mind, Kakashi continued, "The point is, don't let those looks get to you. You think that now that you're older you have the right to fight for your recognition, when really the opposite is true. Now that you're older, you should be mature enough to not let those type of looks get to you. If those type of people don't recognize you for who you are, then you shouldn't bother trying to force them with violence. If you let those looks turn you into something you don't want to be, you'll regret it. Understand?"

Naruto nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I understand." There was another lapse into silence as they continued walking before Naruto spoke again, "Hey, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't tell Sakura-chan about this."

Kakashi wasn't sure if Naruto was talking about the fight or the talk they had just had, but he decided to answer for both. "I won't."

A weak smile broke Naruto's melancholy face in two. "Thanks."


	31. Spy!

AN: I've said it before and I'll say it again, I refuse to let this story die. Sorry it's been so long , but I'm back, and I promise I'll finish this story even if it takes me twenty years.

!-!-!-!-!

Night had fallen on Konoha. The usual cheerful blue sky was replaced by a blanket of star-dotted blackness. The bright, unoffending sun had gone to rest to be substituted with a somber looking full moon. The streets of the village, normally full of citizens happily going about their day-to-day activities, were completely still and quiet, with not even a small wind to disturb them. It was a cool night, a warning sign of the winter that was approaching.

Not many were awake at the late hour, but one light shined bright in clear defiance of the night's reign. The light came from a small, administrative-type building that was tucked away under the shadow of the Hokage's tower. There were no identifying marks on the gray, uniform building. The only clue to its orientation was a simple word printed on the steel front door: _'ROOTS'_.

The source of light coming from the building originated in the office of Danzou. The old war hawk leaned heavily over his desk and diligently read a hand-written report that had been delivered to him by one of his operatives.

There was a knock at his door, but he gave no indication that he heard it. He continued to scan the page-long report in front of him. There came another knock at his door, this one harder and louder and again Danzou ignored it. A third round of knocking never came as the door was opened. The door opened smoothly and slowly and a Peacock masked ANBU was left standing in its wake. The ANBU carried himself upright, with one arm placed at his hip while the other hung casually at his side.

Silence permeated the office as Danzou continued to read the report and gave no suggestion as to whether he even knew he was no longer alone. The ANBU kept a calm gaze through his eyeholes as he waited for his leader to say something. When nothing came, he decided to take initiative and spoke, "What did you want to see me about, Danzou-sama?"

The placid look on Danzou's face morphed into a disgusted sneer. He slowly looked up with an intense glare directed at his underling. He was satisfied to see a shiver of fear run through the ANBU's spine at the subtle killing intent laced into his stare, "_That, _Sai, is what I wanted to talk to you about." Danzou said.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Danzou-sama." The peacock ANBU, Sai, said with a slight tilt of his head.

Danzou's jowls wobbled in anger at the simple gesture from the ANBU, "_That, _Sai!" He seethed, "Your emotion! You've been letting it get the best of you, letting it turn you into a sheep like the rest of the village! Not once did I give you permission to enter my office, and even further I never gave you permission to speak, yet your _impatience _forced you in here and opened your mouth for you! You could have easily bested the vessel today, but your emotions got the better of you and Yamato had to aid you!"

Sai took a step back at the pure outrage radiating from his elder. Realizing his mistake, he quickly corrected his posture until he was standing straight up with his arms at his side and head straight forward. "I…I apologize, Danzou-sama. I was trained to view the vessel as one of our greatest enemies and I couldn't contain my anger." He said with a low bow.

Danzou's cruel look remained on his face as he said, "You should not have anger to begin with!" He nearly shouted. He regained control of himself and continued on, "Were we not at such a key moment in our operations, I would have you punished. As it is now, I need you to fetch Joshu for me, there are a few holes in this report she gave me."

"At once, Danzou-sama."

!-!-!-!-!

Half an hour later, after Sai had successfully retrieved Joshu and delivered her to Danzou-sama with the least amount of emotion possible, he returned to his barracks. The barracks were large, which was understandable since they were the home to every ROOT member. His bed was one of many in a long row of beds that all looked exactly the same. Still, it was his, one of the few possessions he owned in the world.

He sat on his bed, suppressing a depressed sigh as he did so. He pulled the Peacock mask off to reveal his angular, effeminate face. Without his physical mask he had to school his face into an invisible mask of dead pan monotony. He tossed his mask into the chest at the foot of his bed and prepared for bed. He would only be able to get a few hours of sleep before he was up and running missions for Danzou-sama again.

Once he was prepared for bed, he sat down on his bed once again. He sat completely still and quiet. His arm twitched as he fought an insatiable urge. The fight didn't last long as he hurriedly plunged his arm beneath his pillow and pulled out a dull brown book. He stared for a brief moment at the black embossed title of the book: Understanding the Human Mind. He easily opened the book to a well worn dog-eared page. The page had a title that identified it as a new chapter and it simply read, '_Emotions_'.

Finally, Sai let the depressed sigh out. He snapped the book shut and tossed it into the chest at the foot of his bed where it landed next to his mask.

!-!-!-!-!

A nighthawk flew through the night sky, its body silhouetted against the full moon. In its talon the hawk carried a tightly bound scroll. Its bright yellow eyes pierced the darkness, finding its destination in the shape of a man made hole in the ground. It dipped its wings and swooped down low, plunging through the hole in the ground and entering an underground lair illuminated by candle light.

The bird easily navigated the lair's dank corridors, weaving its way around the few people who were awake at such an hour. It cut a sharp turn around a corner, startling a wayward girl, and entered a room that stood in sharp contrast with the rest of the lair. Whereas the previous corridors had been stereotypically dark and gloomy; this room was sterile and white, illuminated by florescent blubs and was home to medical equipment. The only indication the room gave that it belonged in this sinister place was the blood splattered on the floor and on the walls.

In this room the bird found its target: a silvered haired young man with a pair of round spectacles perched on his face. Upon seeing the man, the bird let out a shrill chirp and landed on a lab table. The man turned to the bird and gave it a warm smile. "Oh, Tsukai-san, how nice to see you." The bird dutifully extended its talon and the young man took the message from him. "Give my best to Joshu-san." The young man said to the bird. The hawk let out another chirp, ruffled its feathers, and then took off.

The bespectacled young man studied the letter briefly. He left his laboratory and navigated the underground passages naturally, eventually coming to a stop at a heavy oaken door. He tapped the door with his knuckles and politely said, "Orochimaru-sama, I have a message for you."

"Come in, Kabuto."

He slowly pushed the door open and stepped into Orochimaru's private study. The legendary snake Sannin sat behind his desk, a complicated looking scroll stretched out before him. He turned from his no doubt nefarious studies and held his hand out expectantly. Kabuto quickly deposited the letter into the man's hand and took a respectful step back. Orochimaru quickly broke the seal and pursued the letter slowly.

"Hmm…" He hummed thoughtfully, "It seems Itachi failed to capture Naruto-kun again."

"I'm sure Sauske-kun will be glad to hear that." Kabuto commented.

Orochimaru chuckled darkly before turning back to the letter, "Interesting…" He murmured, his mouth splitting into a sharp toothed grin, "It seems Itachi also assassinated the Nidiame Tuschikage."

Kabuto's raised his brows, "What reason would he have for that?"

"Itachi's reasons were always his own." Was Orochimaru's answer. He read through the rest of the letter, and then causally tossed it aside. Once it was out of his hands, the letter lit up and burned to a blackened crisp. With that done, he turned back to his research, seemingly unaffected by the news the letter contained.

"Pardon me, Orochimaru-sama, but are you entirely sure you can trust Joshu?" Kabuto asked.

"You didn't leave me with many options after you blew your cover." Orochimaru responded, a hint of malice in his voice.

"…My apologies." Kabuto said politely, bowing and turning to exit the room.

"However," Orochimaru continued, "You shouldn't be so suspicious of Joshu. She remains loyal to me for the same reason you do."

Kabuto raised an eyebrow at that, "And what reason is that, Orochimaru-sama?"

"Because I provide her with interesting subjects to study." Orochimaru answered.

Kabuto's face remained blank for a moment as he contemplated this, then it dawned on him and he smiled slightly. "I understand." He said. He reopened Orochimaru's door and made to leave, before the Snake Sannin's voice halted him.

"And, Kabuto?"

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama?"

"Never question my judgment again. If you do, I'll kill you." The man said this without even looking up from his research, but Kabuto could tell from his killing intent alone that he meant what he said.

"Of course, Orochimaru-sama."

!-!-!-!-!

As she unlocked her door and let herself in to her one bedroom apartment, Joshu decided that life as a spy was hard, but life as a double spy was harder, and life as a triple spy was even harder than that. She obediently played the part of one of the Hokage's puppets while serving under that fool Morino Ibiki. All the while, she was secretly reporting to the old fool Danzou and his 'ROOT'. Then, on top of that, she was reporting to the perhaps the most evil ninja to exist, Orochimaru.

This was made even harder by the fact that she hated them all. In fact, she hated most human beings. She was a psychologist, she studied the human mind. As a result, she had the inside track on knowing just how screwed up most people were, especially shinobi.

So, how did someone who had such an intense hate for people end up in a job that not only required her to interact with people, but to do it on a very high level? Because as a psychologist there was a very special mind that she had yet to dissect and examine, and she would do anything to get closer to that type of mind, to get even the slightest chance at picking his mind apart. She knew Orochimaru had no true intention of ever letting her get close to him, but she had her own plans.

She didn't bother turning on the lights to her apartment. She just blindly made her way to her bedroom, and then to her closet. She opened the closet door and stepped inside. She closed the door behind her and turned on the light. The walls of her closet were covered in pictures of one Uzumaki Naruto, many of which the blond haired boy didn't even know had been taken of him. Joining the pictures on the walls were medical reports, dating back to the day he was born.

A sick smile developed on Joshu's face as she basked in the boy's presence all around her. In all her years of practicing her science, she had never studied the mind of a Jinchuriki. Soon she would get her chance.


	32. More Training!

Sakura's hands glowed green as she lightly pressed them against the arm of an injured man. She wasn't sure what the man's name was, but a quick look at his chart had told her that he had torn a tendon in his bicep in a training accident. It was an injury she saw quite often while making rounds at Konoha's hospital with Tsunade-sama or Shizune-san. Healing it was simply a matter of using her chakra to reconnect the tissues.

"There." She said as the green glow dissipated. She wiped a bit of perspiration from her brow and watched as the man cautiously flexed his arm. "How does it feel?" She asked pleasantly, remembering the lesson Tsunade had drilled into her about bedside manner, though she noticed her teacher didn't quite follow those lessons herself.

"Feels great, Sakura-san." The man said, giving her an encouraging smile.

"That's good," Sakura said with a nod, "But you're going to have to go easy on it for a few days, or you might reinjure it."

"Of course," The man said with a nod of his own. He swung his legs over the edge of the hospital bed and hopped off, making his way towards the exit. He gave her a cheerful wave with his healed arm and thanked her once again for her services. She returned the wave with one of her own and then turned to face the woman standing behind her.

Tsunade stood with her arms crossed across her enormous chest, her weight shifted in such a way that her hip jutted out to one side. She cast an appraising look over Sakura that suddenly made the pink haired girl feel very self-conscious. As Tsunade's brown eyes passed over her she began to second guess herself. Maybe she had done something wrong? She gulped and sweat began to bead along her brow.

"We're done here." Tsunade snapped. Then she spun on her heel and marched along the row of hospital beds, leaving Sakura in stunned silence.

"So…same time tomorrow?" Sakura asked hesitantly, perturbed by her sensei's actions.

"We're done, Sakura." Tsunade said again as she examined the medical chart of a man who was wrapped in bandages from head to toe. "Permanently." The sense of finality in her voice threw Sakura for a loop. They weren't going to be training together anymore? Had she done something wrong? "You haven't done anything wrong." Tsuande answered her unspoken question, looking away from the medical chart. "I've taught you everything I know and you've mastered it, now it's up to you to improve your technique."

Sakura knew she should be swelling with pride, but she couldn't find the strength. This was such an unexpected development to her. "Are…are you sure?" She asked.

"Hn." Tsunade grunted with a brief nod, "Of course, you could still volunteer at the Hospital if you want, but I think you have more important things to focus on."

Sakura, still a bit shocked, didn't know what to do. Almost without thinking about it, she found herself bending over and bowing to Tsunade, "Thank you, Tsunade-sama, for all that you have taught me." She said, the words leaping out of her mouth too quickly. She felt foolish for saying it, but she didn't know what else to say.

"Feh. Whatever." Tsunade muttered, "Now get out of here, I've got work to do." With that said, Tsunade watched as the girl hastily nodded and scurried towards the exit. Truthfully, Sakura had learned all her techniques nearly a year ago and Tsunade's relinquishment of her education was overdue. Truth was the Godaime Hokage had gotten quite attached to the girl and enjoyed spending time with her, but the longer she watched her the more apparent it had become that there was nothing else she could teach her. Sakura had the potential to surpass her not just as a medic-nin, but as a kunoichi as a whole. However, to do that she would need to go out and discover her own style and she couldn't do that with Tsunade and Shizune constantly looking over her shoulder.

Outside the Hospital, Sakura wasn't feeling any less confused. She knew she had grown as a medic-nin, but she thought her training was far from over. Now that it was, she was at loss for what to do. For the past three years she had been trained almost exclusively in medical ninjutsu, now she was being told that she didn't need that training anymore. So, what should she focus on now?

She began walking the streets of Konoha slowly, her mind entirely wrapped in this conundrum. However, before she could even get out of the shadow of the hospital, an idea occurred to her. Upon leaving the academy she had been told that she was well suited for genjutsu but Kakashi had never taken the time to teach her and Tsunade's knowledge of genjutsu was very basic.

With a smile on her face Sakura decided that genjutsu was the answer, and she had the perfect teacher in mind. Now, if only she could convince him to stop reading that damn book for a couple of minutes and start training her.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto was sprawled out in his bed, the blankets were twisted around his body, his shirt was only half-buttoned and his sleeping cap was pulled over his eyes. A smile small tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Oh, Sakura-chan." He murmured, "I didn't know they made bikinis out of ramen…"

"Oi, kid, stop having such weird dreams!" Someone shouted.

Naruto jerked awake, his hand flying to the kunai hidden underneath his pillow as he nearly bolted from his bed. Only when he saw the familiar visage of Jiraiya perched in his window did he stop. He slid the kunai underneath his pillow again and lay back down. "What the hell do you want, ero-sennin?"

"Haven't seen you in a while," Jiraiya told him, "Thought you might have missed me."

"Psh. Whatever." Naruto muttered, waving the toad sage off, "Where the hell have you been anyway?"

"Research, of course!" Jiraiya said with a lecherous grin and a thumbs up. Naruto didn't even bother raising his head from his pillow. "Say, shouldn't you be doing missions or training or eating ramen or whatever the hell it is you do?" The pervert asked, cocking his head to the side curiously.

Naruto groaned and pushed himself out of bed, "The old lady banned me from doing missions for beating up some punks in Kumo." He explained, "I _was_ going to take the day off from training, since I just got back from a mission and all, but since you brought it up maybe you could help me with that jutsu." He gave the perverted ninja an encouraging smile, hoping he would finally be able to master that jutsu.

Jiraiya shook his head, "No can do, kid." He said, causing Naruto's face to fall into a deep frown, "I've got to see Tsunade and then I'm off to do more research." That said the old man disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto groaned. "Stupid ero-sennin." He groused, "What good is he if he's not going to help me train?" Then, inspiration struck Naruto. He had _another_ sensei he could train with. Knowing him, however, he was probably doing something just as perverted as ero-sennin.

!-!-!-!-!

Kakashi sneezed, which was a very unpleasant thing to do whilst wearing a mask.

"Bless you, Kakashi-kun!" Gai said boisterously.

"Thanks, Gai." Kakashi muttered. He was sitting at a table in a restaurant with some of his jounin comrades; Gai, Asuma and Kurenai. Kurenai had decided that they didn't spend enough time together and had arranged the lunch meet up. Kakashi suspected she really just wanted to spend more time with Asuma.

"Hey, Kakashi." The genjutsu specialist muttered, "Isn't that one of your kids?" She pointed towards the entrance of the restaurant and Kakashi craned his head around to look. Sure enough, his pink haired teammate had just entered the restaurant and seemed to be looking for him. As soon as she saw him she immediately headed his way.

"Kakashi-sensei, I need you to train me." Sakura practically demanded as she reached his table, causing the Copy Cat ninja to raise an eyebrow.

"I thought Hokage-sama was training you?" He asked slowly.

Sakura shook her head, "She said I've learned all the medical ninjutsu, so now I want you to train me in genjutsu."

"I don't know, Sakura, I-"

"Here comes the other one." Asuma said, interrupting Kakashi and causing both he and Sakura to turn as Naruto approached the table.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto questioned, "What are you doing here?"

Sakura crossed her arms, "I could ask you the same thing."

"I was looking for Kakashi-sensei, I want him to train with me." Naruto responded.

"Well, he can't train with you because he's going to start training me." Sakura told him haughtily.

"Actually, I-" Kakashi didn't get to finish his protest.

"That's no fair, Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined, "I need Kakashi-sensei's help to perfect my jutsu."

"Well, _I _need his help to learn genjutsu." Sakura countered, making it clear she wasn't backing down.

They continued on this way for nearly a minute, arguing back and forth over which one of them Kakashi should train. Every time Kakashi tried to jump in, his voice was promptly drowned out by one of their arguments.

"Consider yourself lucky, Kakashi." Asuma told him with a grin, "At least your students want to learn from you. Mine don't even listen to me anymore."

Kakashi let out a sigh and scratched his head. "I'm not training either of you." He said. Though he hadn't shouted, both Naruto and Sakura instantly went silent.

"What?" They asked at the same time.

Kakashi leveled his one eye at them in a serious gaze, "You're both Chuunin now. You should take the responsibility of your training into your own hands. You'll never reach your full potential if you keep relying on me or other teachers." The tone of finality in his voice was enough to keep even Naruto's mouth closed, at least for a little bit.

"But, Kakashi-sensei, you're probably the only person besides ero-sennin who can help me with this jutsu." Naruto whined.

"And you're the only person I know who knows a lot of genjutsu." Sakura added. She slowly turned to Kurenai. "Unless…"

The red eyed woman shook her head with an apologetic smile.

"If you're so desperate to find someone to train with, perhaps you should train with each other." Kakashi offered. The two chuunin looked at each other questioningly; they had never considered that. "Naruto, your biggest weakness has always been chakra control which is Sakura's greatest strength. Sakura, your biggest weakness has always been stamina which is Naruto's greatest strength. You could learn a lot from each other."

"But, Naruto doesn't know any genjutsu." Sakura complained. She turned to her teammate, "Do you?"

Naruto shook his head. He crossed his arm and glared angrily at the floor, "Ero-sennin wouldn't teach me any cause he said I was too stupid." He groused.

"YOSH!" Gai crowed. He stood up quickly, knocking his chair over in the process. He leapt onto the table and pointed at Naruto and Sakura with a fiery grin. "If Kakashi-kun won't train you then I, Konoha's magnificent beast, shall take you under my wing!"

Sakura's jaw dropped and her eyes widened in horror. Meanwhile, Naruto looked as happy as could be. "You mean you can teach me to fight like Lee?"

"Of course, Naruto-kun!" Gai shouted, "When I'm done with you two you'll be burning with the fiery passions of youth just like Lee!"

"Awesome!" Naruto shouted, pumping his fist into the air. He turned to Sakura with an excited smile and asked, "What do you think, Sakura-chan?"

The girl continued to stare at Gai in complete horror at the idea of having him as a sensei. She slowly turned her head to Naruto and faced his excited smile, then turned back to Gai. The Jounin gave her a thumbs up and smiled even wider, something she didn't think was possible.

She made her decision quickly. She grabbed Naruto by the collar and ran out the restaurant with him in tow, shouting over her shoulder, "No thanks!"

If Gai was put off by Sakura's rejection he didn't show it. With a hearty guffaw and another line about 'fiery youth spirits' he back flipped off the table, picked his chair up, and sat back at the table as if he had done nothing out of the ordinary.

Meanwhile, Kurenai buried her face in her hands as the entirety of the restaurant gazed at their table. "I'm never going out in public with you guys again."

!-!-!-!-!

"Geez, Sakura-chan, why didn't you want to train under Fuzzy-brows-sensei?" Naruto complained, "Don't you want to learn taijutsu like that?"

"No!" Sakura said with a quick shake of her head. Truthfully, when Naruto's eyes had lit up at the premise of Gai's offer, she couldn't help but picture him in green spandex with a bowl-cut, and then she had imagined herself like that. She shuddered, "I…I think we should just train with each other like Kakashi-sensei said."

"Okay," Naruto conceded, though he couldn't help the feeling that he had given up a golden opportunity, "So, what should we do?" He asked as they approached their usual training ground.

"Well," Sakura said contemplatively, "I did want to learn some genjutsu, but you don't know any." She paused as Naruto nodded in confirmation. They entered the training ground and Sakura came to a stop. She put her hands on her hips and looked to the ground in thought. "There is something you could help me with. You know the summoning technique, right?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto said with a nod, "I can summon toads."

"Tsunade-sama had me sign a summoning contract, but I could never do it." Sakura said, remembering her utter embarrassment at only being able to produce the smallest of slugs. "She said it's because I don't have enough Chakra. How did you manage it?"

"Er, well, I tried and tried it a lot and I couldn't get it right." He told her, scratching the back of his head, "Then ero-sennin tossed me off a cliff and forced me to use the fox chakra, and I managed to do it."

"Oh," Sakura said with a deflating sigh, "I guess that doesn't really help me. You know, you're kind of lucky to have that thing." She said it without thinking about it, but as soon as the words left her mouth she nearly slapped herself. However, Naruto didn't seem to care, as he continued to smile at her.

"Yeah, he can be kind of helpful sometimes." He said easily, "Though sometimes it can be a pain in the ass."

"Yeah," Sakura muttered with a smile. Even after all these years he still managed to surprise her with his positive attitude. "Still, I guess I won't be able to do the summoning technique."

"Ero-sennin taught me an exercise to increase chakra supply," Naruto told her, "He said it was kind of like training a muscle, you had to use your chakra to its limit and if you did it enough your chakra would gradually increase. The way he made me do it was to create as many shadow clones as possible over and over again until I was completely drained, then he would make me do the same thing the next day."

Sakura deflated once again, "But I don't know how to make shadow clones." She complained.

Naruto gave her a wide smile and a thumbs up, "I'll teach you that!" He declared.

Sakura returned his smile, "Can you really do that?"

"Of course I can!" Naruto exclaimed, "I taught that dumbass Khonohamaru, didn't I?"

Sakura had almost forgotten about Khonohamaru using _kage bunshin_ during the Chuunin exams. "That's great, Naruto." She said with a grateful smile, "But what am I supposed to help you with?"

"Oh, right, my Hiraishin no Jutsu." He told her, receiving only a blank look in response. "It's, it's kind of like a summoning technique," Naruto tried to explain, "Except…the thing I'm summoning is me."

Sakura raised a questioning eyebrow. She had never heard of such a technique. "I..I don't understand." She told him.

"See, there are these special seals, wait, hang on." He dug around in his weapons pouch and pulled out the seal, "And no matter where this is, if I use the Hirashin I can instantly teleport to it."

"Oh, I get it," Sakura said, a look of dawning falling across her face, "So it's kind of like Shunshin?"

"I guess," Naruto said with a nod, not exactly sure what Shunshin was. "The problem is it requires really good chakra control. If I use too much, I might end up teleporting myself into a wall or something, and if I don't use enough, I might leave something behind."

"Leave something…behind?" Sakura questioned slowly.

"Like an arm." Naruto said bluntly.

She gaped at him. "That's…that's really dangerous."

"Yeah," He admitted with a casual nod, "When I first started learning it I always left behind an arm or a leg or a foot. I managed to get a pretty good handle on it eventually, but ero-sennin told me he didn't want me to use it unless he was around because I still don't have it exactly under control."

"Then should I really be helping you use it?" Sakura asked worriedly.

"You're like, ten times the medic ero-sennin is, I'd rather you put my limbs back on than him." Naruto told her with a disturbing sense of nonchalance. "Plus, it's a lot safer at shorter distances. The most I'll have to worry about at this distance is maybe a finger or a toe."

"I don't know…" The medic-nin muttered, she had performed limb re-attachment surgeries a few times, but didn't like the idea of doing them so…casually.

"Please, Sakur-chan." Naruto begged.

"Well, I did have to do a lot of chakra control exercises before I could start learning medical ninjutsu." She said, "Those could probably help you a lot."

"Great!" Naruto exclaimed. He slammed his fist in his open palm and gave Sakura a wild grin that she couldn't help but return. "Let's get started!"

!-!-!-!-!

"Who?" Tsunade asked, arching her fine eyebrow at the man sitting across the desk from her.

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, "Shoukan Kishi." He repeated slowly. "He's a jinchuriki from Hidden Rain."

"And what the hell does that mean to me?" The Hokage asked. She wasn't really in the mood for Jiraiya right now.

"If you would just let me finish." Jiraiya groused, "I've been trying to track him for a while, but he moves too damn fast, but he finally slowed down enough for me to find him. He's being pursued by an Akatsuki team. This would be a good chance to keep another Jinchuriki out of Akastsuki's hands and maybe even capture one of them."

"So, why the hell didn't you do that?" Tsunade questioned.

Jiraiya sighed in annoyance, "I figured it would be best to send Naruto after him. The kid, Kishi, he's got some problems, and you know how Naruto is with people with problems. I figured he would be able to communicate better with the kid than I would."

Tsunade groaned and rubbed her temples. "The council doesn't want Naruto going on any missions that deal with Akatsuki."

"Is that really the Tsunade I know?" Jiraiya scoffed. His old teammate looked up at him questioningly and he gave her his best smile, "Screw the council, what they don't know won't hurt 'em!"

"I guess you're right." Tsunade said with a grin, "Where's this Kishi kid at anyways?"

!-!-!-!-!

The Village Hidden in the Rain. Long ago it had been his home, now it was just a painful reminder of the grievous sin he had committed. He had spent the remainder of his life trying to make up for his sin. Was his work finally done, would they finally forgive him and accept him with open arms?

Kishi cast his gaze skyward, staring deep into the perpetual rain clouds that hung low over the village. Whatever the consequence was, it was time for him to face his past.


	33. Rain!

Sakura practically collapsed backwards, only being saved from an embarrassing fall by one of the many wooden posts placed in the training ground. She slid down the post until she finally came to a stop against the rough ground below her. She achingly drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, then laid her head across her knees. She was exhausted.

She had been practicing Naruto's chakra building technique for…she wasn't sure for how long. The only measurement of time she had was that the sun had been high in the sky when she had started and now it was sinking below the horizon. She couldn't remember a time when she had trained so hard. Creating one clone, then another and another and another until she had reached her breaking point. Then, with no chakra left to sustain them, the clones would disappear into a cloud of smoke. She would collapse against the ground, utterly drained; then a strange thing would happen. Naruto would shout words of encouragement at her, and she would get back up and do it all over again.

He had that affect on her, and she wasn't sure if she should thank him or murder him for it.

She looked up drearily as she heard him approaching her. He was much better off than she was. He had been practicing her chakra control techniques just as long as her, and while the techniques weren't easy by any means, his immense stamina left him no worse for wear; though he had complained that all the concentration had given him a headache. With a day of chakra control exercises under his belt, he had wanted to attempt the Hiraishin, but after she had told him she was in no mood to put him back together if he screwed up, he had quickly fallen silent.

The blond plopped down on the ground next to her, and impulsively she let her head loll to the side and come to a rest on his shoulder. She didn't put too much thought into the move, but noticed the blush that crept into his cheeks almost immediately.

"What's the matter?" She asked, her voice a bit hoarse, reminding her of the screaming she had been doing earlier.

He shook has head quickly and blurted out, "Nothing!" He tilted his head back and let it rest against the wooden post, hiding his blush from her view. "So, how do you fell?" He asked, instilling some calmness into his voice.

She hummed thoughtfully, "I fell like…shit." She answered honestly, "But it fells good, you know?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. You did pretty good. You learned the kage bunshin faster than me. Faster than Konohamaru too, and he's related to a Hokage." He told her.

Sakura decided to take his compliment at face value and not bring up the fact that he and Konohamaru had both been twelve when they learned the technique. "I just wish I had been able to create more." She mumbled.

"How many did you get up to?" He asked.

"Four." She answered lamely. "How many did you do your first time?"

He shrugged, tossing her head slightly, "I don't know, like, a thousand or something." He said causally, causing Sakura to sigh. "What?" He asked her.

"It's just no fair." She told him.

"What's no fair?" He asked innocently.

She raised her head from his shoulder, which prompted him to lower his head to meet her eyes. "How strong you are." She told him bluntly, "It's just no fair."

"What?" He questioned in disbelief, "You're really strong too, Sakura-chan." He told her earnestly.

She shook her head, "Not compared to you, or Sauske, or Lee or Neji or even Shikamaru."

"You're strong enough to kick all of their asses," Naruto told her, "Even mine." He was being sincere, he was always sincere. It made her feel special to know that he believed in her that much.

She smiled at him, "Naruto, you-" But she was cut off as a loud rumbling emitted from her stomach, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since breakfast. Her mouth hung open in mid-syllable, her eyes widened in surprise, and a blush crept into her cheeks.

Naruto stared at her for a second as his mind processed what had just happened then he threw his head back and cut loose a bout of hysterical laughter.

Sakura's look of surprise quickly morphed into one of anger. She balled her fist up and stuck him in the arm, though she was unable to put her usual force into it. "It wasn't that funny you…you asshole!" She shouted.

Naruto quickly reined his laughter in, for the most part. He stood up and, while still poorly hiding his laughter, offered her his hand with a smile. "Come on, I'll buy you some ramen."

She regarded the offered hand with disdain for just a few seconds before she gave in. She took his hand and allowed him to pull her off the ground. They left the training ground side-by-side and it wasn't until they were out on the main streets of Konoha that Sakura realized he was still holding her hand. She deftly tugged her hand out of his, though he didn't seem to mind.

They kept their hands to themselves the rest of the way to Ichiraku's, and when they arrived at Naruto's favorite haunt, he promptly ordered up two 'Hokage-sized' bowls of ramen. The bowls were cooked with an amazing quickness and set down before the two patrons. Naruto immediately began digging into his bowl, while all Sakura could do was gape at the pure size of the bowl set before her. Really, it couldn't be accurately described as a bowl, more like a _tub _of ramen. She almost began to protest, there was no way she could eat the whole thing. Right?

Wrong. The scent of the ramen wafted up to her nose and her mouth began to salivate and her stomach began to rumble. Before she could even think, her hand had snapped up a pair of chopsticks and she was digging into the bowl with a ferocity trumped only by Naruto.

Needless to say, the old man and his daughter behind the counter were stunned.

The curtains parted behind the two ferocious eaters and Kakashi entered the stand. He too, was stunned at what he saw. "Um…Naruto, Sakura." He said. Neither of the teens responded, "How did the training go?"

Naruto mumbled something around a mouth full of noodles that Kakashi couldn't even begin to understand. Sakura, on the other hand, managed to take a break from her frenzy as she caught the look Kakashi was giving her.

"It's not what it looks like, Kakashi-sensei." She told him breathlessly, oblivious to the fact that she had bits and pieces of food stuck to her face. She turned back to her Hokage-sized bowl, which was more than half empty. "I'm just really…_really_ hungry." She explained, and then dove back into her meal.

As it became apparent that that was the most he was going to get from either of them, Kakashi decided to sit back and watch the show. Naruto, of course, finished his bowl first, but Sakura wasn't far behind. Her stomach finally full, Sakura couldn't help but blush in embarrassment as her dignity returned to her. Naruto hadn't noticed anything different.

"What are you doing here, Kakashi-sensei?" He asked.

Kakashi cleared his throat and cast a questioning look between the two Chuunin before speaking. "I came here to tell the two of you we have a mission tomorrow morning."

"A mission?" Sakura questioned, "To where?"

"We can't talk about it here." Kakashi told them. He turned to the old man and his daughter who were busying themselves with cleaning up their kitchen. "No offense." He added.

The old man waved him off, "None taken. You guys go do whatever it is that you do. It doesn't concern us."

"But, the old lady forbid me from doing missions." Naruto said.

"Don't worry about that." Kakashi said simply, "Just meet me at the west gate tomorrow at six a.m." With that said he formed a quick seal and disappeared in a swirl of leaves before Naruto and Sakura could protest the early meeting time.

!-!-!-!-!

Naruto tiredly made his way towards the west gate, doing his sleepy best not to not trip over his own feet. It was early, just past six a.m. to be exact. The sun was barely out and he was the only person walking the streets. He knew he was already late, but he didn't care. It wasn't like Kakashi-sensei ever showed up on time.

Imagine Naruto's surprise when he finally made it to the west gate and found not only Sakura waiting for him-looking just as tired as him-but Kakashi as well. "You're late." The jounin said immediately.

Naruto glared at the man, mentally noting the irony of the situation but much too tired to point it out. "I..uh… saw a beautiful woman getting harassed and had to stop and save her." Naruto said in his best imitation of his sensei.

Kakashi pondered his excuse with a thoughtful hum then nodded. "Very well." He said, surprising Naruto. The blond boy raised an eyebrow before turning to Sakura, who was leaning against the wall of the gate with her arms crossed, her head hung and her eyes barely open.

"Oi, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted. Her head snapped up immediately.

"I'm wake!" She assured him.

"Good." Kakashi said, "Then let's get moving."

"Where are we-" Sakura didn't get a chance to finish her question.

"No questions." Kakashi said. Before they could say anything else he sped off in a blur leaving them to follow.

It was nearly an hour before Kakashi stopped running, and his two teammates were glad that he did; Sakura because she was still feeling the vestiges of her training with Naruto the night before, and Naruto because he was annoyed that Kakashi hadn't told them where they were going yet.

"Kakashi-sensei, just where the hell are we going?" Naruto asked angrily, approaching the man from behind.

Kakashi raised a hand to quiet Naruto. He gazed about the area where they had stopped. It was a plain field of grass, there was nothing around them for a mile but grass and trees. "This place seems good enough." He said to himself. He turned to his teammates and sat down amongst the grass and motioned for them to do the same.

"You want to tell us what's going on now?" Naruto asked as he lowered himself to the ground.

"We're going to Ame." Kakashi told them.

"Why Ame?" Sakura asked.

"Jiraiya-sama recently found some intel that a Jinchuriki by the name of Shoukan Kishi is in or around the village." Kakashi explained. "He also believes that Akatsuki is hot on the jinchuriki's trail."

"So why all the secrecy?" Sakura questioned.

Kakashi turned to Naruto, who seemed to understand. "The village council doesn't want me going on missions that involve Akatsuki." He said.

Kakashi nodded, "Correct. I couldn't brief you in the village because if word got to the council that we were going on a mission involving Akatsuki they wouldn't allow it."

"Oh…" Sakura said. She turned to Naruto, but he kept his eyes focused on the ground. "So, what's the goal?"

"The goal is simple." Kakashi told her. "We are to go to Ame and find Shoukan Kishi. If any Akatsuki threat exists, we are to defeat them and capture them for questioning. This is a highly confidential S-rank mission. Understood?"

Naruto nodded, but Sakura still had a question on her mind. "Why doesn't his own village protect him?"

"Because they don't care about him." Naruto answered for Kakashi. The jounin nodded, leaving Sakura to say only: "Oh."

"Any other questions?" Kakashi asked. When there were none, he said, "Good. Now let's go." And all three of them became indiscriminate blurs as they jumped up and ran at top speed.

!-!-!-!-!

Shoukan Kishi walked the streets of his old village in a plain white robe with a wide bamboo hat perched on his head. He had spent the entire previous day standing on the outskirts of the village just gazing at it, unable to work up the courage to enter. Today was a different story. He had found the will to step into the village, but he made sure to keep his head low and his face hidden. He was seeking redemption, but he wasn't stupid enough to think that everyone had forgiven him. He knew the majority of the village still hated him, but he knew of one person who might have forgiven him, and if she had forgiven him then she could sway the opinions of the rest of the village.

He came to a stop at a tall, administrative looking building. He looked up and focused his gaze on a window three stories up. It had been years since he had been in the village, but he was certain he had found the right window and if the rumors were true her office would be beyond that window.

He brought his head down and cast his eyes over the street. It was still early in the morning and the streets were empty. A strong gust of wind blew under him and lifted him up towards the window. Beyond the window was a plain square office, furnished with only a desk and a few chairs. She was sitting at the desk with her back turned to him.

He reached out to the window and slowly pulled it open. He had it about half way before her trained sense discovered him. She whirled around in her chair and flung a shuriken at him. He twisted in mid air and avoided the projectile, but he loss his concentration and the gust of wind below him died out. His hand shot out and grabbed onto the window sill and he stopped himself from plummeting to the ground.

The woman marched up to the window and looked down at him. As he hung there, he couldn't help but notice how much she had changed. She had let her dark hair grow out, her face had lost the roundness it had in her youth and become sharp and angular, worst of all her eyes had grown cold and hard. She leveled a glare at him and did nothing to help him up. He began to realize how bad of an idea this had been.

"Arashi-san." He began pleadingly. She drew out a kunai in response, twirled it around her finger briefly, then plunged the weapon into his hand. He had to bite his lip to stop from screaming.

Slowly, she leaned out the window and drew her face close to his. "Give me one good reason." She said, her voice layered in ice, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have you killed."


End file.
